handling biting things

---

The handle-ing  of serpents, scorpions - 

and other biting animals (or plants)?.

A thing Yeshua knew, passed to scions,

expecting them to learn to do, perchance

that things like that might still be round down here,

(unlike New Zealand, where none now exist),

and most of the world-over they appear.

To learn from him, I'd like to now enlist.

That epic super pow-er, not for ā

retaliation, or defensiveness,

but to absorb each hurtful, harmful ray

and thus to grow more able, so to bless.

I see I have to keep out of their reach,

unless creative love would throw me in

to test me, to do battle, or to teach

whoever would be learning or looking.

And then, I don't pretend to know outcomes,

except that these will not be harming me;

it's true that they might hurt, or kill, or some

such torture that might not feel comforting.

But in the end, or at the finish line,

that leads into the start of all the rest,

Yeshua showed us some of that sublime

joy that was his, when he had passed the test,

I full expect that, since I trust his word,

each jibe or hurtful bite that comes my way,

will be a part of discipline occurred

for growing me up. That's all I can say.

---

See, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing will hurt you. Luke 10:19

And in an early addition to Mark, the Christian tradition added various texts to complete what seemed to some to be a missing ending. One edition includes the following:

And these signs will accompany those who believe: by using my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes in their hands, and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.”  Mk 16:17‭-‬18

---