I gotta admit: spiders are not my new best friends. I don’t freak out when I see them, not do I lovingly say, “Oh, hello Mr. Spider. Welcome to my world! I’m going to let you live because I believe that all creatures great and small ought to live.”
Nope…that’s not me. I don’t know what it is like where you live but there are certain times of the year when spiders seem to be prolific. Their webs are a nuisance. Walking through them and getting that sticky stuff on my face is enough to make me convulse. And I despise seeing their webs visible on my outside mirror and elsewhere, telling me they found a home. When that happens I do what I can to find them and get rid of them.
I recently read a quote from a blog entitled 5 Pastoral Proverbs that Stuck by Jared Wilson. The #5 proverb was
You don’t just wipe away the web; you’ve got to crush the spider
Jared accredits it to Steven Taylor, one of his pastors when he was a kid. His point is important. You don’t just wipe away the effects of sin; you’ve got to be extreme, go to the source of temptation.
That’s good advice. We once had carpet in our house that had pet smell, and even stains from the previous owners. We took out the part of the carpet we thought was the source and had tile put down (Kitchen). Nope. After vainly fighting the stain issue, we finally had to rip up the carpet and pad. That was the only way to get rid of both the smell and the stain.
We need to cut the “heart” out of sin by going to its source. Then crushing it that spider.
Hi Bill! There’s so much truth in what you say. Too many times I take the easy way out, trying to ‘cover my tracks’ or just spot clean. For a true turn-around, the root needs to go.
I don’t like spiders either. As I tell my grandchildren, if the spider stays outside, I’ll leave it alone. Come in my house? The spider is on borrowed time. There must be a good metaphor in that too…
Blessings,
Ceil
I’m with you on trying to take the easy way out. Extricating the spider sometimes takes hard work. And a spider is on borrowed time inside or outside where I am concerned.
Amen, Bill! We do have to go to the source of the sin, not just the evidence (webs) of it. With God’s help, we can confess and be forgiven.
Blessings!
Well said martha. Like your use of the web (evidence).
I love to stomp spiders of all sizes. Somewhere in creation I believe God, now don’t take my word for this but I believe God mean to make them do something special beside scar us and spread their webs. Great analogy.
Great quote and analogy! I’ll be using this one.