Created  

The Snake's side of the Story

After Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden, things began to change. Before the expulsion, Eden was a little piece of Heaven on earth. After the banishment of the famous couple, God no longer enjoyed looking after Eden. Now when God looked at Eden, He no longer saw a piece of Heaven. All he saw was man and woman's weakness and surrender to temptation.
It pained God to look at his beautiful garden, and so God began avoiding Eden. Eden fell from favor into neglect and decay. Soon most of the animals left Eden. Like Adam and Eve, the animals began to wander all over the earth. In time most of the animals forgot about the heavenly garden. They could not talk and they could not tell their young, stories about long ago.
People on the other hand, could talk and they did. They told their children stories about Eden and how Adam and Eve were bad and had to leave Eden. They explained that it wasn't all Adam and Eve's fault. They said that the wicked, evil serpent, that awful snake, had led the famous couple astray!
These stories became people's favorite tale. As they were told and retold the stories began to paint Adam and Eve as helpless creatures who were to be pitied. And the serpent, that snake, became meaner, crueler, and more evil. The villainous snake was surely cold hearted and cold blooded! So the story was told and so it was remembered for many centuries.
Unexpectedly things changed. It had seemed like an ordinary morning in Jerusalem and in Israel. The sun rose as usual and people began to stir. Abruptly the usual morning sounds were overcome by a monstrous hissing sound. It grew louder. In the twinkling of an eye the entire population awoke. Dreams, sleep departed the instant the hissing sound hit their eardrums. As the sound filled the air, windows and doors began to vibrate. Now there was a drum like beat as tails and scales rattled and accompanied the hissing. Disharmony settled over the land.
The people were terrified. Children began sobbing. Their parents began to pray. They lifted their eyes heavenward seeking help. Men in the towers pointed and cried out, "The land is being swallowed by a sea of snakes!"
The people looked out at the swarm of snakes and they howled and screamed and screeched at the top of their voices. And underneath their voices, the thunderous hissing grew louder. The roar was so great that it shook the gates of heaven and disturbed God. God put aside his good book and looked down to see what earthly brawl could cause such a ruckus and so much noise.
"Silence!" God commanded. And all was still. God shook his head when he saw what was happening. He ordered, "Snakes lie here on this side of the wall. People sit there on the other side of the wall."
"I haven't time to listen to each and everyone of you. Snakes pick a spokesman. People pick a spokesman."
The snakes decided that Sammi the Snake would speak for them. The people chose King Solomon the Wise to be their spokesperson.
Now God said, " Let us begin with the snakes. Sammi please tell me why all of the snakes have gathered here."
Sammi explained, "We knew that God is in this place. We knew that God was and is just and kind. We know that You, God will listen to us and that you will redress, you will make our situation better." And God asked, " What is your bad situation?"
Sammi replied, "Our troubles started way back in the book of Genesis. From the very beginning people told and retold the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. According to the people version, Adam and Eve lived in this wonderful garden. Here they had no problems and no troubles. God gave them this wonderful life and only asked Adam and Eve to obey one rule. They were not to touch this one tree in the middle of the garden and never to eat that special tree's fruit. Adam and Eve heard the Lord and they obeyed for a while. But one day Eve ate the fruit and then she got Adam to forget his promise and Adam ate the fruit too.
"And You, God were very angry! When you questioned Adam, Adam blamed Eve. When you spoke to Eve, she blamed the Serpent. Eve said that everyone knew that the Serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild beasts that the Lord had made. And she, Eve, was just an uneducated woman. She complained that the Serpent had duped her and Adam. She said that the Serpent was so smoothed tongued and courteous that he and Adam never suspected anything. The Serpent had called her a scaredy cat and dared her to touch the tree. So she did and nothing happened. Then the Serpent told her, 'See it is safe. God was just teasing you. Now I dare you to eat a piece of fruit. Nothing will happen.' According to people, the whole misadventure was the fault of the Serpent!"
" Maybe God, Eve and Adam did not tell the whole truth. Maybe the serpent was just an innocent on looker and it was Eve and Adam's idea to taste the beautiful fruit from the beautiful tree in the Garden of Eden. "
"God You were so angry that you didn't let the Serpent defend himself. You didn't ask the birds what they saw or heard."
"And God if someone had to plant the thought in their minds, couldn't it have been the ass, or the monkey? Couldn't the enticer have been the giraffe or the hyena?
Maybe it could have been the goat!"
God replied, " I remember. I was so angry that I even cursed all the Serpents.
BECAUSE YOU DID THIS
MORE CURSED SHALL YOU BE
THAN ALL CATTLE
AND ALL THE WILD BEASTS
AND ON YOUR BELLY SHALL YOU CRAWL
AND DIRT SHALL YOU EAT
ALL THE DAYS OF YOUR LIFE.
God continued, " I was very upset and a little hasty with that curse. I regretted that line about eating dirt. You know that is true because you can eat eggs and small animals etc.
And I made up for it. Remember at the time of the great flood, I could have extincted you, but I didn't. I ordered Noah to take you aboard the ark. Noah and Mrs. Noah didn't want you, but I insisted that they take you onto the ark."
Sammi spoke again." Why dear God did you have to pick the serpent, the snake to be your villain? God, we snakes are discouraged and depressed. Our young no longer have hope for the future.'
"Your written story blamed the snake for tempting Adam and Eve. Now Adam and Eve have extorted a terrible revenge on us. Their descendents, the people of the earth have spread vicious tales about our species. Whenever humans mention snakes, they cut us down and give us a bad name. There isn't a single story where a snake is a hero. Snakes help people by eating rats and mice, frogs and insects. People eat snakes. Many people wear shoes, purses, and belts made of our skin. There are medicines made from snake venom. They are used to treat high blood pressure and kidney disease. Yet people never say, 'Thank you snakes.' People never say a good word about snakes!"
"Whenever people mention snakes they cut us down and give us a bad name. This verbal abuse has gone on so long that even snakes believe the lies. Their slanderous expressions have destroyed the snake species ego!"
"When humans gamble with dice they call the losing throw, "Snake eyes!" Humans see snakes as losers. They say it so often that our young believe it too and have stopped trying to win anything."
"Snake in the grass refers to the lowest form of life, a deceiver. To speak with a forked tongue means you lie. What animal has a forked tongue? What do people call a louse? A stinker? They call him a snake!"
"And God …"
God replied, " Could there be more?"
Sammi answered, "When you created all your creatures, you gave the birds beautiful, colorful feathers. You gave the zebras and the tigers stripes. You gave the giraffe spots and you gave the lion a magnificent yellow mane. What did you give the snakes? Plain brown and black scales."
God said, "I thought brown and black scales were beautiful. But if snakes want other colors, if other colors would help their egos, this I can rectify quickly."
The snakes began to call out. God I want to be dark green. Make me yellow green. We Boas want to be emerald green! Make me orange please. I want a red head! I want to be the color of sand. We corral snakes want bands of yellow and red separated by black rings!"
So it was said and so it was done. Then God said, "Now go home in peace and I will talk to the people of the earth,"
The snakes began to move. Some moved sideways. Some moved straight ahead. Some slithered along. Soon they were just a blur in the distance and then they were gone.
Now God turned his attention to Solomon and the hordes of people who were sitting quietly on the hillsides.
God asked," Did you really say those things about snakes?" And the people could not look at God. Instead they looked at their toes.
God said to Solomon and all the people on the hillsides, "The snakes were very upset. Why do you think that the snakes were upset?"
Solomon replied, "Eh… I don't know. The people who said those things were just teasing the snakes God. No one meant to hurt the snakes' feelings. No one even knew that the snakes had feelings. Everyone is really sorry. SNAKES! Can you hear me? We are very sorry."
God shook his head. "Teasing you call it? I call it LASHON HARA, a bad tongue! Maybe it's people who have a forked tongue!"
Solomon tried again to excuse the people. "All right, maybe we people did exaggerate
a little. We didn't mean any harm. We were just joking." And Solomon smiled at God.
God frowned and said, "Exaggeration leads to lies. Did you know that Solomon? In Yiddish they say, "A half truth is a whole lie." Were people stretching the truth and telling lies about snakes?"
Solomon asked, "What do you want us to do God? Shall we write a letter of apology? Should we say we are sorry to every snake we see?"
Again God frowned and said, "No I think not. I am afraid that you would just be repeating empty words. This is what I want you to do. Solomon gather your builders and have them erect a very high tower. The tower must be as tall as a small mountain. It will need a very tall staircase and a platform on the very top."
"Will do, God," said Solomon and he and his men went right to work.
When the work was done, God told Solomon to take a feather pillow and a pair of scissors to the top of the tower. When that was done. God told Solomon to cut open the pillowcase and to release the feathers. And God created little gusts of wind. The winds blew the feathers hither and yon. Some feathers twirled. Some feathers danced. The winds scattered the feathers. Soon all the feathers disappeared.
Solomon and the people smiled and laughed. They agreed. "God puts on a good show."
Now God spoke sternly to the people of His world. "Pretend that each feather is a word. See how your words go forth. Once they leave your mouth, they fly like the feathers did when they left the pillowcase. If I ordered you to pick up every feather and put it back in the pillowcase, could you?"
And the people said, "No they are gone. We might find a few, but that's all."
"Ah…"said God. "And you can't take back your words either."
Now Solomon and the people were ashamed and humbled. They returned to their homes reflecting on all that they had said and heard.