“Look at that little snake!” cried Sally, “why I believe he's stuck, he doesn't seem to be able to climb up out of that little hollow!”
“I guess you're right,” answered her sister Betty as she came running up to see. “He almost makes it when the sand slides beneath him and he slips back again.”
The girls were down on the sandy beach of the lake that day. It happened to be a very hot day and they were ready for a swim when they noticed the little brown snake. He was just a little fellow, about ten inches long, and he had slipped down into a hollow made by a footprint in the loose sand.
At first he worked so hard, trying first one bank of the hollow and then the other, but the loose sand would always give way before he quite reached the top. After a few minutes Betty noticed, “He seems to be getting tired, see how much slower he wiggles! Why, Sally, look! He has stopped altogether and has slid down into a little heap! Do you suppose he's resting a minute?”
The girls watched a few minutes more but the snake did not move. Finally Sally got a stick and poked him a bit. Still he did not stir.
“Do you know, I think he's dead!” she said in surprise, “Now what do you suppose made him die? He couldn't have been in that hollow more than five minutes!”
That afternoon they were telling about it at home, and a friend who was visiting them explained the mystery for them. “I think I know the reason,” he said, “I have read that most snakes cannot stand the direct sunlight for it overcomes them very quickly. They need to be in the cool damp shadows of the grass and the woods most of the time.”
The girls remembered that lesson of the little snake and one day when Betty had grown older she was thinking about it to herself. “Sin is just like that little snake,” she thought, “and just as that snake could not stand the bright sunlight so Satan cannot stand the brightness of God's presence. So if we do not want sin to have any place in our hearts and lives we must just let the Lord Jesus in. I remember a verse that says, “Greater is He that is in you, than he (Satan) that is in the world” (1 John 4:44Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. (1 John 4:4)). “I'm surely glad that I have accepted the Lord Jesus as my Savior for now I can say, 'Christ liveth in me'!” (Galatians 2:2020I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)).