Black Cobra and a Mysterious Angel

Miracle Witness

In this true story of a cobra and a mysterious angel, God saves me from a venomous death-bite and delivers a surprising message about my future wife. 

SNAKE CHARMER AND BLACK COBRA
Photo by Bill Hunt (c) 2010

East meets West. There's no more strange a day. On my adventurous arrival in Pakistan, I settled my bag into a temporary stay at the white-walled hostel, and headed right into the sun-hot streets to see what I could see. 
 

From a dirt mound nearby on the outskirts of the City of Karachi, I sat down and watched the activities of a desert nomad encampment of Bedouins. This was an intriguing scene right out of the Bible. 

The tribesmen, camels, donkeys, sheep, dogs, brown cloth tents, campfires, and shade overhangs were a sight that reminded me of Jacob and the twelve patriarchs. 

Along the outer road, I came upon three snake charmers stationed at the side of the road. Being an avid photographer, I squatted down with my movie camera near one snake charmer to get vivid pictures of the snake. 

These were not the giant king cobras, but the black cobras, hooded cousins, considered one of the most deadly venomous snakes on earth. They can paralyze and kill a full-grown man within fifteen to thirty minutes. 

With my camera, I moved in very, very close to the cobra swaying from the basket and the charmer with his wood flute. The snake abruptly turned his black, sinister hood toward me, eye-to-eye. 

“Ooh!” 

The small group of Pakistanis around me distinctly groaned. I suddenly knew my assumption of safety mistaken. 

Face to face, the snake waved, dangerously excited at my presence. He was set to give me a venomous death-bite. 

In emergency prayer mode, I struggled to crawl back very slowly and smoothly not to startle the snake to strike. 

I backed on my hands and feet right through my now very serious case of double-layered goose bumps. 

The snake charmer capped the cobra back into the red straw basket. I noticed he, too, was sweating and trembling. 

"Thank you, Jesus," I said as I stood up relieved, "for delivering me from that snake -- and death."

The Mysterious Stranger

At that moment, a handsome Pakistani in his thirties, spoke. 

"Are you married, Sahib?"

"Am I married? No!" 

I wondered what he wanted.

"Do you have a picture of your lady friend, right now?" he asked. So I reluctantly pulled out a wallet portrait.

"This girl is not the girl you will marry!" he stated. 

"No, the girl you will marry has brown hair like this one, but she is taller. In fact, you have already met her. Where does this one live?"

"On Long Island, New York," I said.

"The girl you will marry does not live there," he said. "She lives up, further north." 

"My parents live in Maine." I tested him by giving leading information.

"No, she is not from Maine," he said. "Where have you just come from?" 

"Upstate New York."

"Yes!" he said, "she is there. 

“You have already seen her. She lives there, way up, in Upstate New York, farther north. That is the woman you will marry, but not this one, Sahib.” 

I offered him rupees to test him. 

“No Sahib! Not rupees. I just wanted to tell you." 

I had no idea who this man was, or whether I should consider anything he said. He did not seem ominous. 

I looked down at the snake charmer and raised my head again to look at the stranger. 

He wasn't there!

I turned to look for his face in the crowd of bystanders. He had vanished! There was no one like him in sight along the open road. 

Was he from God? Was he an angel? 

Puzzled, a stranger in a strange land, I wasn't sure how to judge what had just happened. 

A year later, I met the girl he described in the place he foretold. He spoke a true word. She would, indeed, become my wife. But that's another story. 

Our lives are meant to walk with God. 
-- Bill Hunt (c) 2010