The story goes that during World War II, a young Christian man, a US marine, was separated from his unit on a Pacific Island. The fighting had been intense, and in the smoke and the crossfire, he lost touch with his comrades.
Alone in the jungle, he could hear enemy soldiers coming his direction. Scrambling for cover, he found his way up a high ridge to several small caves in the rock. Quickly he crawled inside one of the caves. Although safe for the moment, he realized once the enemy soldiers swept up the ridge, they would quickly search all the caves and he would be killed.
As he waited, he prayed, “Lord, if it be your will, please protect me. Whatever your will though, I love you and trust you.” After praying, he lay quietly listening to the enemy drawing close. He thought, “Well, I guess the Lord’s will isn’t to deliver me from this trial.” Then he saw a spider begin to build a web over the front of his cave.
As he watched, listening to the enemy searching for him, the spider layered strand after strand of web across the opening of the cave. “Ha,” he thought. “What I need is a brick wall and instead, I’m left to be protected by a spider web.”
As the enemy drew closer, he watched from the darkness of his hideout and could see them searching one cave after another. As they came toward his cave, he got ready for the worst. To his amazement, however, after glancing in the direction of his cave, they moved on.
Suddenly, he realized that with the spider web over the entrance, his cave looked as if no one had entered for a long time. “Lord, forgive me,” prayed the young man. “I had forgotten that in You a spider’s web is stronger than a brick wall.”
This story reminds me of Romans 8:28, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”
Did God send this spider? Well, in a sense, it doesn’t matter. The spider was certainly part of “all things,” but had there been NO spider, Romans 8:28 would STILL be true. Whatever happened, as a child of God, called according to His purpose, God would have been faithful to His promise—he would still work all things together for good for this child who belonged to him. And the same is true for you. If you’re a child of God, called according to His purpose, then love Him…and then you can TRUST him, that He’s working all circumstances for your good as well.
