Ron and his wife Peg were taking a walk around a small town one fall day. Being a biology teacher, Ron was always looking at nature. He suddenly stopped to investigate something moving under a bush they were passing.
Both Ron and Peg were soon bent over, looking with curiosity. What they found was a garter snake which had gotten caught in the pull-ring from a pop can. The snake must have been poking through the leaves and general litter that had collected in that spot. Somehow it had inserted its head through the pull-ring and crawled forward, passing through the ring until it tightened around the thicker part of its body...and there the ring stayed. Since snakes have backward-pointing scales on their body, there was no way it could have backed up to slide back out of the ring. As they watched, the snake twisted and turned, trying to get rid of the ring around its middle. But nothing worked.
Now, there aren’t too many of us who would do what Ron decided to do for this poor snake. Most of us shudder at the thought of snakes, let alone picking one up! But Ron loved all the creatures of nature and felt so sorry for the garter snake that he quickly and gently picked up the twisting snake and sat down on the ground to figure out how he could get the ring off.
Ron gently smoothed the snake’s body. Then an amazing thing happened. The snake completely relaxed in his hands so that he could smooth out its scales enough for Peg to slide the ring gently forward...until it slid right over the snake’s head and was off! The snake lay in Ron’s lap for about five minutes moving just a little, perhaps testing to be sure the ring was gone. Then it slithered across his lap, lowered itself to the ground, and soon disappeared through the leaves.
The idea of picking up a snake to help it isn’t very appealing to most of us — we would shrink back. But Ron knew all about snakes and how much good they do for men by eating mice and rats and other things. He cared enough for that poor snake to do what he could to save it from that ring. The ring probably would have strangled the snake eventually. Did you know that every person in this world has a “ring of sin” around them? It will slowly strangle them — if someone doesn’t save them.
The Lord Jesus Christ knew all about the problem of our sins. He also knew that it would be impossible for us to get rid of them by ourselves. Even though He hates sin, He loves us and cares so much that He willingly suffered and died on Calvary’s cross to bear the punishment we deserve. “Christ died for our sins.” 1 Corinthians 15:33For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; (1 Corinthians 15:3).
If you will stop struggling with your “ring of sin” and accept His love and offer of salvation, He will gladly remove your sins and set you free forever. I asked Him to remove my sins, and He did. Won’t you do it too?
ML-07/21/1985