It didn’t look dangerous, that little rattlesnake. It lay on the doorstep like a pretty little toy dropped by a child. Even its tiny rattles could only sound a little buzz, inaudible unless you brought your ears within a few feet. But it was still a true member of the pit viper family and so poisonous that even a “road-killed” little one could still deliver a fatal bite with a reflex action.
But how was 87year-old Mrs. Orreno to know all this? Recently come from her native Italy, she was accustomed to dealing with snakes bigger than this little miniature! So when she found one on her doorstep, she used her cane to push the snake off.
It didn’t leave. She reached down and picked it up. Then it bit her. She tried to treat the wound herself, washing it off and then trying to suck the venom out, but her daughter called an ambulance and she was rushed to emergency. After a full course of antivenin and two nights in intensive care, she was released from the hospital to go home, wiser in the ways of American snakes.
The little rattler? Oh, he is now in the family freezer as a “trophy” —and a reminder. A reminder and a warning, a warning that right there — in easy reach and close to you — is a deadly danger. Did you know that the devil, Satan, is sometimes spoken of as “that old serpent,” and he is said to “go about seeking whom he may devour.” He does not have your good in his heart; his object is to take you with him to that dreadful place called “hell,” to exist with him forever.
There will be no light there, and no love, and always and forever the bitter memory of the opportunities you refused or ignored or just neglected of accepting the salvation so freely offered. WHY will you die? Oh, why, why, why?
Don’t let the poison of “that old serpent” ruin your eternity!