DROPPING THE SNAKE

DROPPING THE SNAKE

It was a glorious day to be out for a drive. The trees lining the country roads were full of green leaves. White daisies were blooming along the sides of the hills. The sun was shining, giving the whole world a golden glow. My son and I were singing along to songs playing on the radio. Suddenly, an old favorite of mine came on and my son whose memory is far better than mine at times reminded me that we had once had it on cassette, but it was stolen from our car.

Quick as lightening that old memory flashed in my mind. It was 12 years ago. We had just finished shopping at a local grocery store, and when we walked out to our car we found that our cassette box, full of tapes had been taken from it while we were inside. I laughed when I thought of some young boys thinking they had stolen some great new music only to open the box and find instead my collection of moldy oldies.

I even tried to share my humor at the incident with a few friends but had to stop. They all expected me to be angry and outraged over it instead of just laughing it off. They just couldn’t understand my peace with the theft. I, however, remembered an old saying that I had read once.  It went, "If someone hands you a snake, it is wise to drop it fast."

God doesn’t want us to carry those snakes around with us. God wants us to drop them and move on. God wants us to forgive and to smile. God wants us to let go and to heal.  God loves us and wants us to love as well. God wants us to go through life lightly with laughter on our lips, a joy in our step, and the peace of Heaven in our hearts. The next time then that someone hands you something poisonous don’t hold it close. Drop it fast. Then you can spend your day happily holding your loved one’s hand, smelling the flowers along the side of the hill, watching the sun shine down on the leaves, and letting your own spirit sing.

…..Joseph J. Mazzella (joemazzella@frontier.com) by way of “Christian Voices” (ChristianVoices@att.net)