God's message amid snakes

Today I read Numbers 21:4-9.  Its a story about the Israelites in the wilderness, once again losing their trust in God.  Poisonous serpents began to bite people and some of them died.  The Israelites repented, and God told Moses to make a bronze serpent, set it on a pole, and to show it to those who had been bitten.  They would look at the serpent and not die.

As I read this passage in preparation for reading a devotional in Disciplines, I wondered how on earth anyone would write a devotional based on this passage.  And then I read this, written by Charlene Kammerer:

How often do we as a people forget that God is in charge?  How often do we in the church complain that 'if only" we were bigger, had more money, more children and youth, a nicer building, a good preacher, then we would be growing and multiplying our numbers and ministries?  How often do we act like we want to go back to the past instead of moving forward to God's Canaan for us?  To what do we look to regain our trust in God?

So, two lessons for me this morning:
1.  Trust God more.
2.  Any passage can bring God's word, even one with snakes.

May God touch you today (hopefully, without serpents).