INDIGO!

       ‘Indigo Snake’ photo by Dirk Stevenson.

‘The Texas Indigo Snake Eats Rattlers for Breakfast’, said the article in the Texas Monthly.  (See photo above).
It’s true.  This snake’s main diet is venomous snakes!  No wonder the farmers and ranchers love them!  What an incredible metaphor!  
Isaiah prophesied about the coming of our Lord Jesus and said, ‘He will SWALLOW up death forever.’   Isaiah 25:8.    
And He did.  He ‘swallowed up death’ by raising from the dead! 
‘I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.’  Revelation 1:18.

‘Since the children (we) have flesh and blood, he too shared in (our) humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil.’  Hebrews 2:14.

The Apostle Paul quoted Isaiah in the following scripture: ‘So, when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory.’ O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?  The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.  But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.’  
1Corinthians 15:54-57.
Death is called our ‘enemy’ in 1 Corinthians 15:26.

The Indigo is the perfect metaphor of Jesus ‘swallowing up’ our enemy, death, but it also swallows another one of our enemies, venomous snakes that could bring injury or death.  

The Indigo is the largest non-venomous snake in America.  It is nicknamed ‘The Lord of the Forest’ because of its impressive size and girth.  It grows to 6-7 feet long in the stands of Long Pine Forests in the Florida panhandle, but of course the Texan’s claim that they grow to 9 feet long in their state.  (After all, everything is bigger in Texas!).   In Florida, it shares the forest with the Gopher Tortoise that digs burrows in the lose soil that offer the Indigo and many other critters shelter from extreme heat or cold. 

Believe it or not, the Indigo regularly eats COPPERHEADS, COTTONMOUTHS AND RATTLE SNAKES!  Oh, what a friend we have in Indigos.  Wish we had some in Oklahoma!  

There is a lesson for us here!  What can we do to ‘swallow up’ the ‘enemy’ in our lives and in the lives of others, those things that would cause harm to our friends and family?

We can pray!  James 5:16 says, ‘The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man (or woman) avails much!’  NKJV.

We can:  ‘Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.’  1 Thessalonians 5:16-17.

We can:  ‘Do our best to present ourselves to God as ones approved, workers who do not need to be ashamed and who correctly handle the word of truth.’  2 Timothy 2:15.

When we pray, we can ‘bind and loose’:  ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.’  
Matthew 18:18.

We can love one another:  ‘Bearing one another’s burdens and laying down our lives for our friends!’

And above all, we can learn to hear Gods voice and in obedience, do what He tells us to do. Being, ‘Doers of the word and not hearers only.’

And, ‘if you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good things of the land!’  Isaiah 1:19.

And so much more!

Take a lesson from the Indigo and do your part!