Dragon

 I believe in dragons. Between the Big Dipper and the Little Dipper in the northern sky slides the constellation Draco, The Serpent. That’s all the word “dragon” really means, “serpent.” The word has been used for centuries on centuries in the same way we use the word “dinosaur” to describe the same and similar beasts. So I believe in them. 

The image is striking, for it connotes a fearful beast and the most selfish one. The Bible speaks of dragons or sea monsters more than 20 times, and some of those uses refer to specific persons. Behemoth and Leviathan and in Job 40-41 describe terrible beasts that give us pause. But there are more horrible monsters still. 

A podcast by Malcolm Gladwell called “Dragon Psychology 101” made me realize how dragons are hoarders. Tolkien understood this well in giving us Smaug. Then I realized that, at the time I heard the podcast, I was working for one! Strange how everything about him fits the image. He’s an old, sly, conniving, stock-piling consumer of the innocent and weak. Flames shoot from his mouth as he has nothing good to say. He will find a way to profit and is never satisfied. 

Listen to Ezekiel speak to Pharaoh, King of Egypt, “the great dragon that lies in the midst of his streams, that says, ‘My Nile is my own; I made it for myself.’ . . . You consider yourself a lion of the nations, but you are like a dragon in the seas; you burst forth in your rivers, trouble the waters with your feet, and foul their rivers.” (Ezekiel. 29:3, 32:2).