That was the first time I met with Casey, the senior vet of the place. He asked me the origin of my accent and what I was doing in life. Then he proceeded to tell me about the animals of the Bible. Not any animals. The talking animals.
In the Bible, we only meet two animals who talk like humans: the serpent of Genesis, and Balaam’s donkey (Numbers 22). The donkey was actually a she and the prophet would ride her.
One day, as they were traveling in the countryside, an angel suddenly appeared in front of them. The donkey moved out of the path to avoid colliding with the heavenly visitor. Balaam who could not see the angel started beating his donkey for what seemed an erratic behavior until she turned to him and told him off for his inability to understand what was really going on.
Balaam’s eyes finally opened up (a translation says «the scales fell off his eyes») and he was able to see the angel. A psychiatrist friend had pointed out this text to me years ago. According to her, the donkey represented our unconscious mind. Casey also mentioned the serpent from Genesis, a weird animal that had legs (before God condemned it to crawl on the ground) and could talk – and those words, spoken to Eve, go back to the foundation of our theological discussions. “Did God really say…?” (Genesis 3:1)
Casey then mentioned that he had been called before to take care of snakes that had just shed their old skins. This shedding does not always go smoothly. Sometimes, when the weather is dry, the old skin stays stuck on the eyes of the serpent – usually in time of very dry weather – creating some sorts of scales and the serpent cannot see anymore.
“Most of the time, Casey said, you just need to put some ointment or even Vaseline on the eyes of the serpent to solve the problem.” Casey commented that others stories in the Bible (including Balaam’s) mentioned humans unable to see until “scales fell of their eyes”.
For one thing, it is good to know what should be done if we ever cross the path of a snake in trouble. For another... let's face it. Serpents and humans, we all have our own way to blind ourselves until the voice we expect least - the donkey we ride for instance – frees us and brings light back to our lives.
