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