Spider, Spider, Spider Web
September 17, 2009

I saw a spider weave a web outside my bedroom window. The upper anchor line stretched some twenty feet between two tilting trees while the lower line clung to tiny tree branches some fifteen feet below. The thinner-than-thread silver silk cords glistened in the morning sun-light that filtered through spindly trees and floated softly from leaf to leaf to spider work.

When I first saw him the spider had almost completed his intricate mesh. It hung, almost invisible, and he hung to it. A day's work made meaningful only if it fulfilled its purpose and intercepted a fly in flight.

The spider spins his beautiful and brutal web without thought or reason. He doesn't stand back and admire his art or likely savor the flavor of the fly. And if his work is destroyed by a falling branch or running beast he just starts all over again. The spider lives ignorant of either his purpose or his work. He just spins and weaves and builds until one day he dies.  

I got my binoculars and watched the spider work. I couldn't figure out how he managed to get the top strand between those two trees.  Did he drop to the ground from the branch, crawl over to the other tree, climb up and secure it on a branch? Seems like the silk, which is five times stronger than steel, would break. Did he let the wind carry him from one branch to the other? I guess that would work on a windy day. But there was no wind that morning.

The anchor lines seemed easier--he could drop down, secure the line and climb back up.

As I watched I wondered how God did it. How did he design that spider, a single eight-legged  arthropoda--not an insect--to build such an architecturally splendid, structurally strong, and cunningly dangerous silk-work trap? I don't know how but I know why. At least, I know one reason.

In Romans 1:20 Paul said: "For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made."

I'm convinced God wants us to view the wonders of creation and marvel at his handiwork. Even spiders, which I usually see as a nuisance to be gotten out of and away from my home, reveal the artistic brilliance of God. And even spider webs, which I sweep from the ceiling of my house and brush from my clothes when I hike, reveal the artistic brilliance of God.

This week let's not live like a blind man in an art gallery, unaware of the beauty that surrounds him or those who created it. Instead, let's marvel at the wonder of God as revealed in his creation.