Tigers and Snakes

September 16 2009

The other night, before we left on our current journey to Pune, India, I encountered a snow white tiger . I know it was a dream, but it felt more real than not. In this dream but I had to go over snowy boulders in an ATV with Bethyl. We were on the way to a church.

At one point the road was so obstructed by frozen boulders that I got out of the car to check the path. As I climbed over a big boulder I met this tiger several times my size, low to the ground, stalking towards me. I was not afraid of him, even though he was long, powerful, and sleek. I brushed past him and he gave a little roar of distress. I looked closer. There was a little black poisonous snake burrowed into his back right above his tail. I knew he needed help. He was sensitive there, pained, but not able to get to it by himself. I wasn’t sure what to do. I’m not a vet. But for such a time as this?.....

As I think about this dream it seems to me now that the tiger is a symbol of the church to which we are being sent to minister: powerful, white as snow--and infected with sin. It also could be me that is the tiger, or the little band of friends pictured here, Bethyl and I, Wayne and Meg. However it may be, together the body of Christ is needed to care for and root out evil within one another-- wherever it burrows in and can’t be reached. I can’t let this just slip by without my attention, care, and help.