The Warning

   The 

Warning

    Hello there! My name is Scott Denton and today I have a story to tell you; but this isn’t just an ordinary story, this is the story about how my life changed in a matter of minutes. And this is how it all began…

~

“Hey Scott!” hollered Lewis Cross from across the sidewalk, he ran over to me and grabbed my shoulder to keep him up from running so hard.

“So, are you…coming…or not?” he asked gasping for breath.

“I don’t know,” I said reluctantly, “What if old Mr. Douglass catches us on his private property?”

“He won’t!” Lewis said, “That old grouch is always cooped up in that old trailer of his!”

“Well, I don’t know,” I said, “who else is going?”

“Oh just Hector, Noah, and Aaron.” Lewis replied.

I signed, “All right I’ll go, but if we get caught I’m blaming it on you since it was your idea and all.”

Lewis rolled his eyes, “Whatever! We won’t get caught we never do!” He said with a smile, “besides it’s going to be fun.”

~

I stood on my front porch dreading what I was about to do in a few moments, Lewis and his buddies were going to meet me on their bikes and then we were going to sneak onto Mr. Douglass’s property to catch some rattlesnakes that Lewis had supposedly seen on the property.  we were going to capture them and sell them to this guy Lewis knew about that would give a pretty penny for some snake skins.

“What am I thinking?” I thought to myself, “One of us could get seriously hurt or worse! Rattlesnakes are poisonous, I know Lewis said he has some thick gloves that we were going to wear, and we all had been instructed to wear rubber boots so we wouldn’t be able to be bitten on the leg.”

“I hate high school!” I muttered to him, “All of a sudden I’m trying to fit in with the crowd and doing stupid stuff just to have some popular friends.”

I kicked a pebble across the road, “and mom would kill me if she knew what I was doing.”
 A few minutes later Lewis and his friends showed up on their bikes, “You ready Scott?” Lewis asked.

“Ya, I guess,” I muttered beneath my breath.

“You look a little hesitant,” Hector said.
‘ Ya, well maybe we shouldn’t go! I mean someone could get bitten.” I said with my eyes to the ground.

Lewis laughed out loud.

“You chicken Scott?” Noah asked with a smirk on his face.

“Chicken, chicken!” Aaron started chanting until they all joined in.

“No, I’m not!” I said firmly, “I’m coming, I was just being cautious is all.”

The boys smirked.

“Well then get your bike and come on!” Lewis hollered before he started pedaling down the road.

~

When we got to Mr. Douglass’s fence there was warning signs all over. My eyes roamed all over the many warnings.

DO NOT ENTER

WARNING: Dangerous territory

PRIVatE PROPERY

“UH, guys, look at the…” I started to say but when I looked up I saw that the others had already crawled under the fence and were walking away not even noticing the signs.

I sighed and then took off after them.

~

I looked around carefully and tried to walk as quietly as I could in the dense woods.

“The nest is right ahead,” Lewis whispered, “You got the bag Aaron?”
“ Ya,” he whispered back.

“Ok, I brought these things to catch them with!” Lewis said.

I looked at the four long stick things with a claw at the end of them.

“Are you sure that’s what you’re supposed to use?” I asked, “It looks like those pooper scooper things you can get at Wal-Mart, or those things that people pick up garbage off the side of the road with.”

Lewis gave me a hard glare and growled, ‘I saw them use this on TV to capture snakes and I DIDN’T GET IT AT WAL-MART!”
“ Whoa!” I said backing up, “No reason to get angry, “But um… where did you get it?” I asked with a smile.

“None of your business!” He screamed.

Aaron & Noah snickered, and Hector butted in, “I saw him get them at Target,” He said laughing.

I grinned and was about to laugh when Lewis stomped off and said over his shoulder, “You better learn to keep your mouth shut Hector!”

  After a few minutes we found the rattlesnake’s nest, it actually wasn’t that hard since you could already here their rattlers.

“What now?” Noah asked.

“We get them!” Lewis said with a cocky grin on his face, “Scott would you like to have the honor of capturing the first one?”

I gulped, “Well I…”

“I’ll take that as a yes!” He said shoving the bag in my arms and gave me the claw thing.

“But how do I…” Suddenly my voice was cut off from a loud gunshot in the distance.

Before I knew what happened I heard Aaron scream in pain and drop to the floor, Lewis started running, and my first instinct was to duck. I heard another scream from Noah and I looked up to see him a few feet away holding his leg that was bleeding.

I laid there on the ground my heart-thumping and head pounding. I didn’t know what was going on and I didn’t know what to do.

I heard footsteps a few feet to my right, looking around I saw Mr. Douglass with a shotgun in his hand and a shocked expression on his face, “What have I done?” He screamed collapsing on the ground, “I thought it was an animal! Oh Lord, what have I done?” He yelled tears falling down his cheeks. I tried to crawl away as fast as I could my body shaking in fright. I started running. I heard a hiss and then a sharp pain in my leg, I screamed in pain, but kept running. I didn’t know where I was going but I had to get away, I had to get help.

~

I opened my eyes and heard the faint noise of beeping, I looked around  and saw that I was lying in a hospital bed; my mom and dad were sitting asleep in a chair in the room’s corner. My leg still throbbed in pain.

“What happened?” I whispered, “Where am I?”
And then I remembered the awful scene that I had witnessed.  I remember running, and running until I got to my house and then collapsing on the front porch.

“Mom?” I said loud enough for her to hear me, “dad?”

They stirred and then woke up.

My mom jumped up and ran to me, “Oh Scott!” She said tears rolling down her eyes, “I was so worried! How are you feeling? How is your leg?”

“What…what happened?” I asked, “Where are all of the other boys?”

My mom reached out and patted my hand more tears coming into her eyes.

I tried to sit up but it hurt to bad, “What? Where are Aaron, and Noah, and what about Lewis?”

“Scott,” My dad said softly, “How about you lay down for a few minutes and rest.”
“No!” I screamed, “What’s going on?”

My dad sighed, “Scott do you remember anything about what actually happened in the woods?”

I shook my head, “No not much.”
“ Scott I don’t know what you guys were doing out there but I know this -you should have never been there!”

“I know, I know!” I said, “I tried to tell them to listen to the warning signs but they didn’t!”

My dad sighed, “You could have listened.”

I put my head down in shame, “I know, I’m sorry! But can you please tell me what happened?”

 “Well… Mr. Douglass was out on his property hunting when he saw you boys out there; well let’s say he didn’t know it was you. He has bad eyesight and the woods are thick out there and he thought you boys were deer and…”

“He didn’t shoot someone did he?” I asked eyes wide, “Please tell me the others are OK, please tell me…”
“Scott,” my dad said tears beginning to form, “Aaron was shot in the back, he died before we could even get him to the hospital, and Noah got shot in the leg… it had to be amputated.”

I laid back on my pillows the tears flowing down my cheeks, “and Lewis?”

“He got scared by the gunshots and ran but he… he fell unto some rattlesnakes and got bitten various times. He’s… he’s gone too.”

“But, how?...why?... Why am I still here? Why am I not dead?”

“You only got bit by one snake, your wound was bad but you’re going to make it just fine.”

Tears fell down so rapidly I could barely see.

“Why, couldn’t I have died too? It’s not fair that all of those boys got killed, besides Noah who now he doesn’t have a leg! How can he live like that? Why did I turn out Ok? Why…”

“Scott!” My mom said, “Please don’t talk like that, God let you live. And I am so glad that He did.”

“Well I’m not!” I screamed, “The man who killed my friends is going to pay! He’s going to…”

“Scott,” my dad whispered sadness filling his eyes; “Mr. Douglass didn’t mean to kill them! He didn’t know. He tried to keep them away by putting up warning signs but you guys didn’t listen!”
“ Still, I…”

“Scott, you’ve been unconscious for four days. And in that time…well… Mr. Douglass has committed suicide. He blamed himself for the accident.”

I looked up at the ceiling and wished that I would die right there and then for I wouldn’t have to live with those memories haunting me. But at that time I didn’t know that God had something else planned for me…

~

4 weeks later

“Hey there Scottie!” My Grandpa hollered at me from his rocking chair on his front porch.

I waved and smiled.

My Grandpa was probably my favorite person on the planet; I hadn’t seen him for a while so I decided to come visit him for the day.

“Hey Grandpa, haven’t seen you for awhile.” I said cheerfully, I hadn’t smiled much since the accident but Grandpa always had a way of making a person cheerful.

“Yes sireee! Haven’t seen you in 4 weeks to be exact!”

“Ya, I guess that’s about right,” I said.

I walked up onto his front porch and sat down next to his rocker.

“How are you doing?” Grandpa asked quietly.

“Uh…not so good,” I said bluntly looking at the ground.

“Want to talk about it?”

“No, not really.” I said.

“Well, I feel like I should talk about something to you.” Grandpa said, “You know this accident made me think about something; I was thinking about what a good opportunity it is for me to tell you about God and…”
“OH Grandpa!” I said holding up my hands in protest I really don’t want to hear about your religion again! I’ve heard it already!”
“ Scott, won’t you at least hear what I have to say!?!” Grandpa asked, his eyes pleading.

“All right,” I said sighing.

“First off Scott don’t you ever think about how blessed you are to still be alive? Don’t you think there is a reason?”

“Uh first off I was just lucky, and you know what!?! I wish I had died, because every day now those horrible memories flood my mind! I’m miserable.” I said tears about ready to fall down my cheeks.

“I know you’re miserable Scott, but it doesn’t have to be that way!” Grandpa said.

“Grandpa I…”

“Just let me finish, please!?!”

“Fine,” I said blowing out my breath, “I guess it won’t hurt.”

~

“Scott remember those warning signs that you and your friends saw on Mr. Douglas’s property?” My grandpa asked.

“Yes,” I said.

“Well you know what those warning signs remind me of? They remind me of people like me- Christians. Who are trying to tell others about Jesus and about the penalty of sin which is Hell! And just like you and your friends ignored those warning signs, so are so many lost sinners ignoring the Warning that we are giving them about sin and its penalty. And while so many people think that they have all the time in the world to live the way they want and to sin against God without getting punished, they are wrong! Just like how you and your friends ignored the warning signs, you didn’t think you get caught or hurt, but what happened?”

“We got caught…and hurt.” I said choking.

“Yes and it cost you a terrible price! But an even more terrible thing than getting bit by a rattlesnake or shot because you ignored a warning, would be to ignore the warning God’s people are giving you and then to die and spend eternity in Hell! It would be far, far worse.” My grandpa said tears in his eyes.

I could feel tears in my eyes threatening to spill.

“And the thing is Scottie,” he said choking up, “I don’t think you’ve listened to my warnings, and if you had died in the woods that day… I just… I just would have never forgiven myself.” He said breaking in to a sob, “I want you to know Scott that I love you and Jesus does too!”

Tears began to block my vision and my body began to tremble, “Thanks grandpa, I love you too!” I said running up to him and embraced him in a hug, I didn’t care if I was 16, I truly loved My Grandpa and I wasn’t ashamed to show it. “Grandpa, do you think that God would really forgive me and save me after all I’ve done?”

“Yes!” He said with a wide grin, “Yes Scottie, he will.”

~

And that’s the story of how my life changed, and now even though it’s hard to believe, by God’s grace I am a preacher of a Baptist Church and have a beautiful family. You see I’m so glad my grandpa told me how to be saved, and even though I wanted to die after that accident, I believe that God kept me alive for a purpose!

   And Let me tell you if you are a Christian to keep on telling others about Jesus and how they can escape Hell. Because while some people might not listen to your Warning some people might. Because even though I didn’t listen to Mr. Douglass’s warning, I listened to my grandpa’s and that was the most important Warning a person can ever listen to.

Always remember…

ONE WARNING CAN CHANGE A PERSON’S LIFE.