Sammy was a good-looking young boy who
lived in the deep south. His summer days
were filled with times of walking through
the woods, playing with friends, and
fishing in the pond down the dirt road.
Fishing was by far his favorite thing to
do. Just about every day during his summer
vacation, he would dig up some worms and
head off, pole in hand, for a day of
fishing.
This steamy hot day was like most others
during Sammy's summer break. Waking early,
he could hear the pond calling him to come
fish. Sammy quietly walked out the front
door, grabbed his pitchfork and worm pail
from the porch, and walked into the woods
to search for bait. He turned over old
stumps and dug under leaves hoping to find
worms, and under one old stump he hit the
jackpot. The ground was writhing. In two
minutes he had all the bait he needed, and
in 15 minutes he was at the pond. Reaching
into his bait bucket, Sammy pulled out a
big worm. He double hooked it and tossed
it into the water. He noticed a stinging
in his hand, but filled with the
excitement of the moment, he paid no
attention to it.
Within 30 seconds, Sammy had a strike and
pulled in a nice catfish. Wow, he thought,
a fish in the first minute. This is
unbelievable! He put the catch on his
stringer, hurried to re-bait his hook, and
tried his luck again. Once again he felt a
stinging sensation in his hand as he threw
his hook into the pond. He didn't have
time to worry about it.
Within just a few seconds, he had another
huge fish. He fumbled the next time he
baited his hook--his hand felt numb and
stiff. But Sammy was too excited about
catching another fish to give it much
thought. At the end of only an hour of
fishing, Sammy had caught eight large
fish. This was definitely his best fishing
day ever. He was so proud of his
accomplishment that, even though there was
plenty of day left to fish, he threw the
heavy stringer of fish over his shoulder
and dashed down the dirt road toward home
to show off his catch to his mom and dad.
The local sheriff happened to drive up
alongside Sammy and started to
congratulate him on his catch of fish.
With a smile and a victory whoop, Sammy
held up the stringer. The sheriff gasped,
parked his car and strode over to Sammy.
His eyes hadn't deceived him--Sammy's arms
really were red and swollen to about twice
their normal size.
"Exactly where have you been and what bait
did you use to catch all those fish?" the
sheriff asked
Sammy already guessed the answer. "I found
some special bait under an old stump,"
Sammy boasted. "These worms really wiggle
good," he commented, handing up the bait
bucket for inspection.
After a close look at the worms, the
sheriff went into fast-forward. Securing
the bucket in his truck, he then scooped
Sammy and his stringer of fish into the
back seat of his patrol car. Spinning a
U-turn on the gravel road, he sped off to
the hospital, but Sammy was already dead.
What the sheriff had discovered was that
Sammy had been fishing with baby
rattlesnakes. Sammy's deadly bait brought
him a good morning's fishing but cost him
his life. Had Sammy stopped fishing after
that first sting, he could have been
saved. One bite from a baby rattler won't
kill a person who gets treatment in time.
But Sammy was having fun and didn't bother
himself with the small voice of pain in
his hand. Then, as his hand grew numb,
even that small voice was silenced.
Playing around with sin is like using baby
rattlesnakes for bait. Sinning seems
harmless to young people who don't
recognize sin and are unaware of its
deadly consequences. The more sin you get
into, however, the more numb you become to
its sting. In the excitement of the
moment, you ignore the still small voice
of God warning you of danger and
encouraging you to choose life instead of
death.
Unknown Author
