My husband is a very intelligent and capable man—but when it comes to spiders, it becomes another thing altogether and intelligence swiftly succumbs to emotion!
Many years ago when we were dating, we were driving to the wedding of some good friends of ours. I was working towards sitting for my driver’s licence, so I decided to take the opportunity for some more driving practice and took the wheel that night. I was fairly calm and relaxed—until a massive huntsman spider began climbing across my windscreen.
Spiders are not exactly what I want to see on my windscreen while driving! We were on a road where it was not easy to pull over. I gasped and yelled, “What do I do?”
As scared as I was, there was still hope that the spider was on the outside of the screen where it could do me no harm. But very quickly it became apparent that the spider was on the inside of the window and just in front of my hands. While my heart was beating at a hundred miles an hour, thankfully my husband was calm and instructed me not to worry.
“Just keep driving,” he said, sounding completely in control. “It won’t get you.”
Not wanting to look like an idiot, I listened to his steady instructions and managed to keep calm.
Wow, I thought, he’s so brave!
“You’re doing well, Beck,” my husband reassured me, “he’s not going to get you.”
Next minute, the spider up and crawled across the windscreen to the passenger side. My husband leapt in his seat (seatbelt and all) and yelled, “Pull over! Pull over!”
After humorously trying to calm him down by using his own words back on him, “He’s not going to get you!” I relented and pulled the car to the side of the road.
Sometimes life catches us by surprise. What is meant to be a fairly normal car ride can suddenly become an unprecedented challenge caused by something totally unexpected being thrown into the mix. Some people refer to it as ‘life throwing you a curve ball’ or as ‘throwing a spanner in the works’. Whatever it is called, it happens to all of us and sometimes we just have to roll with the punches.
Though we may call the spider episode amusing, often
life’s curveballs are not humorous—they are downright serious and painful.
We may not know why and how trials suddenly fall upon us, but maybe it is not for us to know or understand straight away. Often we have to go through the trial before we see the outcome and the reason behind it. We live in a world that is affected by sin—and in this world a lot of bad stuff happens.
However, many of us know that God is loving and is constantly with us. We believe, and experience, that when we trust in him we find that his plan and purpose can handle trials. These tough times can be part of our refining as people. For gold to be revealed the soil has to be refined.
So, next time we’re faced with something unexpected I pray we will pause and put our mind on the creator—asking, “What can I learn from this experience, God? How can I grow through this? How can I find your goodness here?” and, perhaps just as importantly, “How can I help others through this?”
As we grow in life it’s important to think beyond ourselves to others. Sometimes we can be so wrapped up in our trial that we forget to think of those who are going through it with us. Helping carry each other’s burdens is a fabulous way to experience life together.
Published in the Salvos Warcry Magazine, May 5, 2018
http://www.warcry.org.au/single-post/2018/05/05/Huntsman-horror
(c)Rebecca Moore 2018
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