Father, I am grateful for Your presence and care throughout another busy weekend. There was a lot to do, and we made it through with nary a scratch. All praise to my loving Heavenly Father!
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Something that I have seen multiple times this year on my morning routes on those heavy dew mornings is lots of spider webs. They are gloriously laden with droplets of dew reflecting the light of the early morning sun. Along fence rows, or in overgrown fields and brush along the sides of roads I see them. Not just one…or two…but literally hundreds of them!
They are beautiful…but thinking about it a bit, it’s pretty creepy. Spider webs don’t just magically appear out of thin air and the name of them gives a very obvious clue as to their origin…spiders! Hundreds of webs correlate with hundreds of spiders! I would dare say that we don’t think about that too much when we walk across open fields or through a bit of brush for the most part – unless we happen to catch one across our face.
I’m not going to say I would enjoy a spider crawling on my arm or over my cheek. But I’m not one to freak out every time I see one. (My sister-in-law, God love her, is one of those kinds of people – even a picture of a spider gives her the willies!) This summer weeding around our flower beds I saw plenty of them, but it didn’t stop me from working. If I saw one in the area, I would shush it away, having no desire to hurt it or squish it picking up the debris I accumulated.
In our daily lives, temptation abounds. It quite often is not obvious, and we don’t always see it until it smacks us in the face…but it is there. It may lightly brush through our semi-conscious mind. Often it is hardly noticed, and we continue on our way, but other times it quickly grabs our attention. It then becomes a matter of choice. Do we examine it more closely? Do we dwell on it fascinated by its allure? Or like most often with spiderwebs, do we scramble as quickly as possible to get it off and move quickly to distance ourselves from it?
I don’t know of anyone who would even pause for a second to consider leaving a spiderweb on their face…but unfortunately do it all the time with temptation.
In reality, a spiderweb is just a nuisance. (I have never had a spider cling to its creation that is now stuck to my face!) Temptation, on the other hand, has a far greater possibility of leading us into sin. And that can develop into a life-or-death situation – at least spiritually.
Dew-laden spiderwebs may be beautiful in God’s great green earth, but we don’t see them as an invitation to run through them. Temptations may be overwhelmingly enticing but let’s not embrace them either.
In Matthew 26 we are told of Jesus’ trials in the Garden of Gethsemane. He is about to enter His most trying times leading into His suffering and death. He asks His disciples to pray with Him and finds them sleeping. He says these words.
“Keep watch and pray, so that you will not give in to temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak!” v41
Lord Jesus, may we follow Your words of guidance. Amen.
Sept 17th, 2023, Sun, 8:43 pm
