Innocence is a topic that's very precious to me, especially at this time in my life as I'm transitioning into adulthood, so I thought I'd string some thoughts together, partly for my own benefit, partly for yours. Enjoy!
If you know me, you'll know how much I've always longed to be a hobbit. I love the feel of grass between my toes (which aren't hairy; I promise), and I go barefoot as often as I can, but as a native of Georgia's piedmont region, that means not very often at all. Lurking in the tall grass, behind any bush, underneath any ivy patch, there's bound to be a snake (At least, that's what my mum has been telling me). Not only that, but ever since The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, there's been an unspoken rule that every child, especially one from the South, should get to visit in a "swimming hole" at least once, but of course nearly every pond and creek and lake in Georgia happens to be infested with cottonmouths. Needless to say, I'm very resentful towards snakes for robbing me of two of childhood's greatest pleasures.
If you know me, you'll know how much I've always longed to be a hobbit. I love the feel of grass between my toes (which aren't hairy; I promise), and I go barefoot as often as I can, but as a native of Georgia's piedmont region, that means not very often at all. Lurking in the tall grass, behind any bush, underneath any ivy patch, there's bound to be a snake (At least, that's what my mum has been telling me). Not only that, but ever since The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, there's been an unspoken rule that every child, especially one from the South, should get to visit in a "swimming hole" at least once, but of course nearly every pond and creek and lake in Georgia happens to be infested with cottonmouths. Needless to say, I'm very resentful towards snakes for robbing me of two of childhood's greatest pleasures.
So late last night, my mother decided that we needed to get in shape for our upcoming mission trip (which is only about a week away, mind you), and so at 9:15 pm, we started off on a walk along the more wooded roads that ran through the back of town. It was peaceful and dark, and the air was thick but pleasant-smelling, and we could hear the whistle of a freight train in the distance. Plus, my mum and I were genuinely enjoying each other's company. Of course, it was only a matter of time before that shattered.
After about a mile, we found ourselves on a dimly-lit street where the sidewalk was overgrown with weeds. Something up ahead caught my eye, and my first thought was "Wow, what a smooth, bendy twig that is!" After a few more steps, I thought "Huh, that sure looks like a snake." It wasn't until I was two feet away from its head, about to step on him, that my mum shouted "Copperhead!" and pulled me into the street. Thankfully, there were no cars coming, so we could just stand frozen in shock for a few seconds in the middle of the road before laughing nervously and continuing on our walk. However, I found myself eyeing every shadow suspiciously, jumping over every twig, and staring at my exposed ankles for the remainder of the walk. What had previously been a quiet, fun exploration of our community had turned into panic and paranoia. I, in my attempts to soak in the beauty and calm of the night, was suddenly jarred by the reminder that the world is a broken and dangerous place, and no amount of wishing or imagining or ignoring fact will change that.
Pictured: a much smaller, but no less terrifying, baby copperhead I found last Autumn.
In fact, there actually is a perfect world that we can look forward to- Isaiah 11:8-9 says that when Christ returns, "The infant will play near the cobra’s den, and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea." However, the world we live in now is far from ideal; our universe is very, very broken, and the curse of sin has spread like an infection to nearly every nook and cranny of creation. It's inescapable.
And yet...though this fallen world is all we've experienced so far, deep down, we all know that this isn't how it should be. When we're children, we can pretend that the world is all sparkles and sunshine, but sooner or later that little voice catches up with us, and we get that lingering feel in the marrow of our souls that tells us something has gone horribly wrong. When we become adults, we must put away childish things; that doesn't mean we can choose to see the sparkles and sunshine in the world, but we can no longer pretend that the evil doesn't exist. As J.R.R. Tolkien once said, “We all long for Eden, and we are constantly glimpsing it: our whole nature at its best and least corrupted, its gentlest and most human, is still soaked with the sense of exile.”
By the time the copperhead slithered back into the shadows, I'd managed to lose yet another little chip of my naiveté- it's become a precious commodity since I turned eighteen. Though I did learn to be more cautious, especially at night, it's at the expense of my ability to pretend that danger isn't real and relevant. Obviously, there are much worse things in the world than snakes- right this week there have been devastating fires in Colorado, riots in Turkey, war, poverty, starvation, and countless deaths, and presently, there's nothing to be done about all the badness in the world, short of Christ's return. But, if that's what it will take to finally restore the world to that perfection and peace we've all been pining for, then please Lord, Come Back Soon.
Click here for the sequel to this post, "Innocence, Pt. 2: Exile".
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