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“Danger: We believe there may be a dangerous pit viper lost somewhere in the apartment complex. Please watch where you step!” This may sound like the first line from a low-budget horror movie, but for some renters in South Carolina it is all too real. Management at an apartment complex found a snakeskin from a dangerous gaboon pit viper on their grounds and delivered the news to residents this past week. Immediately, residents asked how a dangerous snake from Africa ended up in their backyard.
One of the prevailing theories to this question so far is that someone was keeping the viper as a pet and it escaped. This may sound crazy, but it would be far from the first time that a person has illegally kept dangerous animals as pets. Unfortunately, it would also not be the first time that a dangerous pet escaped from its owner. Let’s just hope this story has a happy ending for the residents of these apartments.
Most if not all of those reading this article are thinking that a person keeping something so dangerous as a pet must be insane. Yet, as I read the article discussing this incident, I could not help but wonder how many of us keep a far more dangerous thing in our lives. How many of us keep sin close to our homes and our hearts? How many of us believe that, like the owner of a dangerous snake, we will be able to maintain constant control of our sin? How many of us fail to completely understand the dangers of allowing sin even a small place in our lives? In the New Testament, Satan is described as a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. If Satan is the lion, sin is his teeth. Let us never underestimate the power and danger of sin in our lives. After all, a venomous snake may end our lives on this earth, but sin may kill our soul for all eternity.
Walter Rayburn
Owl Hollow Church of Christ
Winchester, TN