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.
