I found a spider in my bathroom this morning and, not being a fan of spiders, I grabbed a shoe and proceeded to smack said spider. Only nothing happened. The spider was safely tucked into one of the shallow gaps between floor tiles – effectively protected from the brutal force of my shoe. It was like an underground bunker, safe and secure.

At this point, I didn’t even know if it would make itself known again. If it didn’t, would I just leave it there, or would I try and lift up the floor tiles to see if I could get it out? Although, that sounds like a lot of effort. I might ask my friend about what to do, as he’s recently had a spider infestation in his house, and he ended up looking for a terminix in iowa service to help him get rid of them. The experts told him that there was quite a lot of them, and to their word, they managed to get rid of them all. So, this could be an option worth considering if I really needed it. For now, I think I’ll just wait it out…

Then something odd happened. The spider decided to make a run for it – striking out alone across the vast plain of floor tiles… **!!SMACK!!** bye, bye spider…

As I stood there looking at the remains, it hit me: How often do we leave the protection of God to strike out on our own?

The Psalms talks about God as our “fortress,” “shield” and protector (Psalm 18:2, 144:2, etc.). Jesus cried over Jerusalem right before he was killed as he longed to bring the people under this wings as a mother hen covers her chicks (Matthew 23:37). Yet, just like Jerusalem of old and the spider this morning, we get scared and try to make a run for it.

And when we do, the evil one strikes down hard and smashes us against the rocks of this world.

Oh that we might learn to stay close to Jesus and keep under his wings.