“The spider taketh hold with her hands, and is in kings’ palaces.”
Proverbs 30:28
To most people spiders are pests, but they do serve a good purpose. Most kinds eat great numbers of flies, mosquitoes and other insects. Some birds not only eat spiders, but steal their webs to weave into their nests for added strength or to make a smooth inner lining.
There are about 40,000 different kinds of spiders in the world. Most spin webs, and their webs come in a wide variety of shapes. Outdoor spiders make the most beautiful webs, which can be seen best in early morning while silvery dew clings to them. The garden spider stretches its beautiful web between branches of tall plants. Another, the orb-spider’s creation, when covered with dewdrops looks like a splendid display of lovely pearls hanging on drooping strings.
Spider webs are creations no human being could ever duplicate. Though they vary in size and shape, most have two dozen or more strands forming circles around a tiny center (the spider’s home). These are held at proper distance from each other and strengthened by a number of “ribs” that look like the spokes of a wheel coming out from the center. All is so cleverly done that it looks like a blueprint had been followed. But spiders don’t need blueprints, for the Creator has given each one the instinct and ability to make its own web in a God-given pattern and design.
Threads of liquid silk, finer than human hair, flow from several “spinnerets” at the rear of the spider’s abdomen. The reason for more than one spinneret is so a spider can produce different types of silk for a particular purpose. The different spinnerets can produce liquid silk in a very thin thread or a thick, wide band, or silk that dries quickly or remains sticky. Some can even produce a thread that looks like a beaded necklace.
Webs are amazingly strong. Most can withstand the force of a bumblebee or other large insect flying straight into them, as well as the insect’s frantic struggles to break loose. Even snakes that get entangled in webs sometimes can’t get away.
The Lord God, the Creator of all things, has given the spiders these wonderful capabilities, and His watchful eye cares for them just as He cares for every living thing. That includes every boy, girl, man and woman. A verse from the Bible tells us, “Neither is there any creature that is not manifest [seen] in His sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do” (Hebrews 4:13). Besides knowing Him as your Creator, do you know Him as your Saviour too?
ML-03/12/2000