The Spider’s Strength

     I was eating breakfast a couple of mornings ago, when I noticed something crawling on the table, or so I thought. I was sitting at a glass table so I wasn’t exactly sure where the “crawling creature” was. I first thought that the creature was under the table, but finally discovered that I was seeing the reflection of a spider who was building a web just a couple of inches outside the nearby window. Realizing that this was the perfect situation for photographing the spider up close, I got my camera and started snapping pictures. It was fascinating to watch the tiny spider engineer its web. It has already setup the “spokes” for its web and was now laying down the circular spirals. Looking through my zoom lens I could actually see the spider using one of its eight legs to attach the silk thread to each spoke, as it circled the web in smaller and smaller circles. The spider seemed to be working at a feverish pace, and within a couple of minutes had completed the web. The spider was quickly rewarded for its effort when a small bug flew into the web. The spider quickly ran over to the bug, encircled it with more of its silk, and started to feast!

     This morning I went outside to get some birdseed out of a container. I noticed another spider that had build a web connected to the birdseed container. As I walked up the scared spider abandoned his web and made an almost immediate decent to the ground, three foot below. I moved my foot close to where it landed and it made an unbelievable rapid climb, back up its silk thread to its web! With a little prodding, the spider made the descent and ascent trip, several more times. I was amazed at the strength of this little creature!

      I found it really fascinating watching these two spiders perform their awesome feats. The spiders were only about a half inch across, but were very strong for their size. The first spider’s web was almost two foot across, or 50 times bigger than the spider. It is surprising that the spider could contain enough silk thread material in its body to build a complete web that is much larger that its body. Who teaches the spider how to build a web? How can they build such a perfect circular web, in a flat plane, without anyone else helping them? The second spider climbed to a level that was over 150 times it own height in just a second or two! That is equivalent to a man climbing an 80 story building, in a couple of seconds!

     Spiders have amazing mental and physical abilities for their small size. The Bible contains only a couple of references to spiders, but says that they are little but are exceeding wise (Proverbs 30). Sometimes we as humans think that we are so weak and unimportant that we will never accomplish anything. Those that think that way need to take a lesson from the small spider. Despite its small size it is able to accomplish remarkable feats. Proverbs 30 also says that the spider inhabits the kings’ palaces. So, learn a lesson from the small spider and realize that, no mater how small or insignificant you may be, you can still achieve great and awesome feats for God!