Beech Tree News Network

“Snakes Alive”

Some people don’t fear snakes – most do.  My old friend, Don Sharer used to say, “People who like snakes need serious help.”

But my mother, Gladys Locke, carried fear of snakes to a new level.  If she ever saw a snake of any kind or size, she would burst out crying. 

One summer afternoon my daddy talked her into going blackberry picking.

“Are you sure this is a real clean place – no heavy bushes,” she asked daddy. 

“Where we are going, I’d bet there is not a snake within a mile,” daddy promised.  My daddy didn’t usually stick out his neck that far.

Well, they got their buckets and found the place daddy promised was snake free. 

I wasn’t.  He would have lost his bet.  They had been there scarcely five minutes when mother saw a snake, almost under her feet.  She screamed, threw the bucket into the air, started running back to the car, crying her head off, slamming the car door and rolling up the window, spilling all three of her blackberries.

Daddy went ahead and picked enough berries for a blackberry pie. 

Sometimes we sin and don’t realize it. 

Growing up we kept a small replica of a false god among our household things.  It was of a small, fat, ugly little man with a hole in its backside.  The hole was for burning incense in the false god’s backside.  It was making the house smell good.  We in no way worshipped the thing.  It just gave off a good smell. 

After growing up, I realized we kept a small statue of Budda in our Baptist home.  I’m sure my mother didn’t know what it was when she bought it…she being a strict southern Baptist, and a born-again Christian. 

Nobody can take you to heaven but Jesus.  John 14:6.

Kindest regards…