Country Living
The church where I teach is blessed with a campus rather out in the country, surrounded by fields, pastures, and a stream. This provides many advantages, not the least of which is wild blackberries in season (Yum!) However, there are a few disadvantages, as in every scenario this side of glory; and the occasional spider inside the building must be listed among the nuisances of country life.
But I have never experienced what happened last Sunday: a small species of spider cockily made his way up the podium while I was preaching. He came nonchalantly over the edge of the pulpit and stopped on my Bible. Without pausing in our study, I shut the scriptures on him. Spider eliminated, I opened the book, removed the carcass, and went on with the sermon.
Thankfully, I was so delighted in the scripture passage before us that we didn’t miss a beat. Yet in the back of my mind, I kept hearing Jeremiah’s words:
“Is not my word like fire,” declares the Lord, “and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?” (Jeremiah 23:29 NIV 1984)
Indeed it is. Just ask the spider.