ONE morning a little girl named Daisy was out in the garden playing, when something attracted her attention, and she stopped opposite some tall bushes that grew by the side of the house. It was a spider’s web that was spread out from branch to branch and was gently waving to and fro in the breeze.
This interested Daisy very much, especially as Mrs. Spider was there herself, holding on to the center of her web with three or four of her legs—for the spider has eight legs—while with the others she was turning about a dark mass that looked like the body of a house fly, from which the spider was, no doubt, making her breakfast by sucking its blood.
On calling her father’s attention to the web, he was able to explain some of thy habits of these busy workers, which, we are told by those who study their ways most, must not be called insects on account of their different form, structure, and habits- from those of most insects, and having no antenna or feelers.
It is wonderful how even and exact a spider will make her web, circle after circle being added until the whole is complete. The fine threads are all taken from her own body, and each one is strong enough to bear her own weight. A spider can make three or four webs if necessary, but would then die unless she was able to get food to supply the waste of strength.
Scripture speaks well of the spider, and links it with three others said to be very wise—the ants, conies and locusts.
A gentleman was at one time visiting the White House, and he remembered this verse while he was being shown from room to room. When the elegant furniture and bric-a-brac were being pointed out to him; he paid little attention to these, but was looking up into every corner to see if he could find a spider’s web. At last, while he was being shown through a very beautiful room, he looked up at the chandelier, and there he saw what he had been looking for.
The spider (or lizard, as some translate it) teaches us a needful lesson. She taketh hold with her hands and is in kings’ palaces. The king’s palace is not only expected to be a very fine mansion, but the very best. So it brings before us a picture of heaven, and as the spider (or lizard) is an unlikely creature for such a fine house, so we are unworthy of heaven, out it is our blessed privilege. through the Lord Jesus Christ, to lay hold of that blessed home as ours. He is the One who has the right and title to that place, for it is His home, and He has the right to take in with Himself dose who put their trust in Him, for He died for them, and washed their sins away in His precious blood, to make them fit for His presence in that blessed place.
Have you laid hold of that happy home, as it were, with your hands? Are you able to say, “It is mine?” It is your privilege to do so, for the Lord Jesus receives all who will come to him.
ML 12/29/1918