Of Snakes and Silken Linings...

Ashen colored, alone on side of the road, she had been left for dead.

Everyone coming down the road glanced her way and then made a bee line in the opposite direction.  Wasn’t she the one that had been at the party last night, dancing as if she didn’t have a care in the world?  Yes, that was her.  She was always laughing, telling jokes, the life of the party. 

When I thought about it though, nobody really knew her.  She was the one that everyone envied, but no one knew.  She always dressed right, showed up in the right places, and said the right things.  But, in the end, she was a mystery.  None of us knew her.  We all just pretended we did.  And she pretended the best of all…

But, now, here she was lying on the side of the road, about to meet her Maker.  Or was she…

I’m ashamed to admit, I didn’t much care.  She had seemed to have what all of us wanted – the perfect life.  She had money, she had looks.  Plenty of lovers who met her every need.  Well, at least they bought her things – she didn’t want for anything.  Or did she?

The strangest thing happened as I watched from a distance.  Some guy walked right up to her and got down on the ground and started to work on her.  It so startled me, I went over and asked him what he was doing?  He said she had been bitten by a snake that had been hiding in her bag. 

She had been carrying around this murderous, venomous monster on her arm for quite some time.  Apparently, it had nested in there, deep in the lining of her beautiful silk purse, probably as a baby, small and innocuous.  But, it had grown and even given birth to other little killers, all while hiding in her beautiful, expensive bag.  She never noticed it until that day when she reached in her bag, absentmindedly groping around for something she had lost, when the deadly thing had pounced on her and grabbed onto her hand until she couldn’t shake it free.  Without notice, all of the lights in her life when out.  She couldn’t breathe.  She couldn’t even call for help.  All of the little baby killers gathered around her and feasted on the delicacy of her flesh.  They were the ones who were having the party now.  They had been so patient – so cunning.  They had stayed in the dark and hidden themselves completely in the beautiful things she chose to cover herself with.  It was questionable who was hiding more – the snakes or the lady with the silken purse.

But, none of this seemed to matter to the guy who stopped to help her.  He was leaning over her, with his mouth to her flesh, sucking out the poison that threatened to take her life.  I couldn’t believe it.  He was risking his own life to save hers.  I thought he must be crazy, himself.  I asked Him why he was doing it – what did she mean to him?  

He looked at me with eyes that pierced right through me.  He told me she belonged to Him.  She was His.  He said He had invested everything He had to rescue her from certain death.  I watched Him suck the poison of a lifetime out of her.  I watched Him love her right back to life.  

I couldn't understand what I had seen.  She was so completely helpless in the grip of the enemy she had nurtured so close to her heart.  But, here, right in front of my eyes, she was given new life by this guy who said He had never, ever forgotten that she belonged to Him.  Seems she had known Him well along time ago, when she was just a little girl.  She got so lost, He said, along the way.  But, He had never forgotten her.  He called her by name.  And when He did, she turned and smiled a smile I had never seen on her face before.  She knew she was looking in the face of Love, unspeakable and full of mercy.  She was captured by the face of her Savior...