Talking snakes?

Marie likes snakes. She has a friend who took his pet snake to school for "show and tell." It had a nice color and seemed very peaceful in its cage.

Now, this snake didn't talk. "Why, of course, it didn't talk!" you might be saying. "Snakes can't talk!" And you're right. No real snake has ever said a word.

But the Bible has a story that teaches a lesson about a talking snake. In this story, when a woman called Eve believed that a snake could tell her something true, things went wrong. ^{See Gen., chap. 3 .} Once, Marie's Christian Science Sunday School class read this story. A talking snake reminded them of the way lies and a liar try to fool you. True thoughts—of peace, goodness, and health—make you smile. Lying thoughts —of hurt or sadness or disobedience—make you afraid. But a talking snake is a lie to begin with and couldn't tell the truth. So Marie and her friends said they could stop a lie by not believing in the liar.

Marie decided to watch her thoughts. Good thoughts from God she kept and enjoyed. If snaketalk came, she called it a lie. She said, "You can't talk, snake," and she prayed to know God's thoughts, true thoughts. She remembered that Christ Jesus said to the Jews who obeyed his teachings, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." ^{John 8:31, 32 .}

Marie told Mom what she was learning in Sunday School. They thought of a game to play. If Mom or Marie started to listen to any kind of snake-talk, the other would make a snake's mouth out of her hand, and flap her thumb and fingers to imitate a talking snake.

This looked so silly they both would start laughing. The bad thought or lie wouldn't have anyone to believe it. Instead, Marie and Mom would feel God's presence and power close to them. And they would be so glad to discover that God's thoughts had really been with them all along.

You can see that this was no ordinary game.

One evening while Marie and Mom were doing the dishes, Mom suddenly felt very ill. She bent over, and then she found that her legs were covered with blotches. Marie was frightened to see Mom in pain and afraid. Then Marie remembered their game. "This is snake-talk!" she thought. "I don't believe it, because the truth is that God is our Father and Mother and loves us. He would never cause a lie of sickness!" Then she made her hand flap back and forth right under Mom's nose (she was still bent over).

Mom saw the hand signal. She stood up slowly. She smiled at Marie. "Why, is that the old snake-talk?" Giggling, Marie replied, "Well, it isn't PAC-MAN!" Mom and Marie burst out laughing and hugged each other. And then they finished the dishes.

That night when Mom had her bath, she noticed that her legs looked normal again. And that was the end of that snake-talk.

Parent's note:

The game my daughter and I played came out of a need I felt to learn how to put evil into its proper perspective—to see that it is without power and nothing. Prior to this healing I'd been studying the Bible—the chapter in Genesis—and was most helped by one of Mrs. Eddy's insights: "A knowledge of both good and evil (when good is God, and God is All) is impossible. Speaking of the origin of evil, the Master said: 'When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.' God warned man not to believe the talking serpent, or rather the allegory describing it." ^{Miscellaneous Writings, p. 24 .}

I loved what Christ Jesus said to his disciples: "Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you." ^{Luke 10:19 .}

About five years earlier, when I was not a student of Christian Science, this condition had been diagnosed medically as relating to anemia. The bouts always lasted about a week. Thus my wonder and joy at the power of Christ, Truth, when the symptoms were totally eradicated within an hour.