I was looking at a spider web strewn across a panel on my lanai. The intricacies of the fragile silk-weave start from a single thread shot from the spider into the wind with the hope that it will catch onto something. It is a game of chance for the sustenance of a life. The silk is delicate, but flexible, which gives the spider some pretty decent odds. The web bends with the wind and stays intact doing its job, just a day in a life. But, as we have all seen, one harsh blow and the web is no more.
Life can be so fragile.
I can’t help but think how often I just take life for granted. I leave my house with my mind full of assumptions. How often do I rush out my door with a hurried goodbye as I race to beat out the clock to be somewhere? Or those nudging reminders to call an old friend, but never get around to it? Why do I presume upon my God for my length of days? Every day is a gift. Every day deserves my thanks, my attention, my intention. Every day is another silk thread woven around my life in delicate grace; a life that bends and sways with the flowing winds and sustained by the mercies of God. There are no guarantees, surely that silk can snap, but the mercies that flow on those winds can bear the harshest of blows in their compassion. You see, the odds are not in the length of days, but in the goodness of the One who gives them. The goodness is the guarantee, the goodness that everything has its purpose under heaven.
Yes it’s true, life can be fragile, but it’s not a game of chance. In fact, it’s not a game at all. Every life has its purpose under heaven and each one will see its intended days lived out. There can be freedom in the fragility when there is trust in the goodness of God.
“I love the Lord because he hears my voice and my prayer for mercy. I will pray as long as I have breath… How kind the Lord is! How good he is! So merciful, this God of ours.” Ps. 116:1-2,5
