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PROGRAM D-7561
I want to share a fairy tale that I think teaches a very important lesson:
A young girl was walking through the woods one day when she almost stepped on a snake. She pulled back in horror, but to her amazement, the snake cried out to her, “Oh, I’m so glad you came along. I’m so cold and need a friend. Will you please pick me up and put me under your coat so I can get warm, and will you be my friend?”
In fear, the girl replied, “Oh, no, I can’t possibly do that. You’re a rattlesnake and I can’t pick you up.”
“No,” the rattlesnake answered, “that’s not true. I promise I won’t bite you. I really want to be your friend, and after all, am I not a creature of God’s, just like you? I’m so cold; please pick me up.”
The girl sat down to think it over. As she looked at the snake, it became more beautiful to her with its many colors. She noticed its graceful lines and movement, and gradually it began to look harmless to her.
She thought, “Well, just because most rattlesnakes bite doesn’t mean this one will. It seems like a very nice snake, and shouldn’t I be willing to be a friend when someone asks me?”
So, she said, “Yes, I will be your friend,” and she picked up the snake and put it under her warm coat. Immediately the snake bit her, and the pain and poison flooded her body. She cried out in pain, “Why did you do that? Why did you bite me? You said you wanted to be my friend.”
As the snake wiggled away from her, it turned and with a smirk, said, “Hey, you knew what I was when you picked me up.”
It’s a fairy tale; snakes don’t talk. But there’s a most important lesson in that simple story. How easy it is for us to rationalize away the dangers that we know exist when something looks attractive to us. How easily we are deceived into lowering our standards and going down the wrong path because our human reasoning tells us it will be all right.