A Wisp Of Gossamer

The other day, I took these pictures of a spider web outside our back door. This is one of their favorite spots to weave. It’s hard to get a decent picture of a web, because it’s almost invisible unless the sun’s right behind it. I have arachnophobia, which means that I’m terrified of spiders. It has been this way ever since I can remember, when both my mom and grandmother were afraid of them as well. After a suitable period of screaming, they would run to get their weapon of choice, a broom. Now I ask you, a broom? It does not have good smashing abilities, and the spider would inevitably get lost in the bristles, only to crawl out at some later time to terrify us once again. But I was always unable to get them to use something more effective. I am often too afraid to get close enough to spiders to kill them, as some can jump. A few years ago, I had a special bug catching tube about three feet long that would suck them inside. I used this so much that it broke. Scientists are always giving spiders drugs to see how they affect web spinning. On sleeping pills, spiders only drape a few threads together in a loose hammock. LSD makes them spin a sunburst looking web. I don’t see how these studies can possibly be of any use to us. In 1973, two spiders were sent into space in Skylab lll. The webs they spun in space were the same as ones on earth, but the texture of the silk was thinner, as they tried to control the elasticity of the silk in weightlessness. The Bible tells us that our faith is as fragile as a spider web when we place it in things other than God. “What he trusts in is fragile; what he relies on is a spider’s web. He leans on his web, but it gives way; he clings to it, but it does not hold. “ Job 8:14