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God
and the Spider
During
World War II, a US marine was separated from his
unit on a Pacific island. The fighting had been
intense, and in the smoke and
the crossfire he had lost touch with his comrades.
Alone
in the jungle, he could hear enemy soldiers coming
in his
direction. Scrambling for cover, he found his
way up a high ridge to several small caves in
the rock. Quickly he crawled inside one of the
caves. Although safe for the moment, he realized
that once the enemy soldiers looking for him swept
up the ridge, they would quickly search all the
caves and he would be killed.
As
he waited, he prayed, "Lord, if it be your will,
please protect me. Whatever your will though,
I love you and trust you. Amen."
After
praying, he lay quietly listening to the enemy
begin to draw
close. He thought, "Well, I guess the Lord isn't
going to help me out of this one." Then he saw
a spider begin to build a web over the front of
his cave.
As
he watched, listening to the enemy searching for
him all the while, the spider layered strand after
strand of web across the opening of the cave.
"Hah,
he thought. "What I need is a brick wall and what
the Lord has sent me is a spider web. God does
have a sense of humor."
As
the enemy drew closer he watched from the darkness
of his hideout and could see them searching one
cave after another. As they came to his, he got
ready to make his last stand. To his amazement,
however, after glancing in the direction of his
cave, they moved on. Suddenly, he realized that
with the spider web over the entrance, his cave
looked as if no one had entered for quite a while.
"Lord,
forgive me," prayed the young man. "I had forgotten
that in you a spider's web is stronger than a
brick wall."
We
all face times of great trouble. When we do, it
is so easy to
forget what God can work in our lives, sometimes
in the most
surprising ways. And remember with God, a mere
spider's web becomes a brick wall of protection. |
