By F. D. Adkins
Throughout the process of building our house, we have accumulated quite a few pallets and scraps of unused boards, landscaping timber, and stone, which we have stored behind the garage. The other day, my husband was working on a project and was digging through the pile of unused pressure-treated lumber to see if there was anything he could use. As he shifted the boards, I gasped, not in fear, but in awe at the size of the snakeskin outstretched and hanging over the landscaping timbers. I am terrified of snakes, but I am intrigued by nature. Since I knew the snake had to be long gone, I could not help but continue to stare and study it, fascinated at the positioning of the skin woven through some rebar sticking up like spikes out of some of the timbers. The snake had rubbed against the rebar to help pull off the old skin.
A few days later, as I was reading my daily devotion, my thoughts returned to the snakeskin. The snake shed his skin because the old skin was too tight, and the creature needed rid of it in order to grow. When he slithered out of the old skin, he did not look back or try to carry the skin with him as a memento of all the great times he had before receiving new skin. No, he simply slithered away, free and with more room to grow.
In 2 Corinthians 5:17, Paul writes, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (KJV). Similarly, in Ephesians, 4:22-24, Paul instructs, “…put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness” (KJV).
When we accept Christ as our Savior, we are made new. We acknowledge and accept the sacrifice Jesus made. He paid the debt for our sins. We are forgiven, washed clean, the past mistakes erased. We are given a new beginning to grow and flourish as a child of God. Just as the snake shed the old skin, so that he could grow, we must not look backward, but upward, toward Jesus. We should crave the word of God and desire to spend time with our Father every day, seeking His guidance, and striving to be who He created us to be.
“… let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith….” Hebrews 12:1-2 KJV
