Okay, Then…

It’s 0530 as I write this, and the temperature is 43F, with a sunny 73F forecast for the afternoon.

When I pulled back the shower curtain a while ago, the spider was sitting there, just underneath the spout.

He currently resides somewhere out in the back yard…dry and unharmed, but much chillier than he would have been had I not disturbed him.

Which brings up the question…am I ever allowed to wander into circumstances that necessitate God removing me from them, removals which elicit grumbling and questions and frowns?

I’m well aware that I’m in the tedious territory usually occupied by college students polishing off a bottle of wine in some dimly-lit dorm room, or octogenarian men gathered at tables in warm diners, holding forth over their coffee and hash browns. I’m aware that my questions are neither original nor sophisticated. But they are sincere. Watching the creatures and forces of nature provides me with an endless series of lessons from which to draw, and I cannot think of a single one of these lessons that cannot be expanded into the immense truths that are simultaneously elusive and obvious.

“Ah, but human beings are not spiders, Orr,” say the well-rehearsed churchmen. “And God is not some sleepy shower-taker.”

True, true.

But then again, why are these lessons, these principles so clearly displayed every minute of every day? If a pebble tossed into a pond really does cause a certain effect, and if oily rags stored in a garage really do tend to combust, and if indolence really does produce poverty…how do I know that God isn’t — or at least hasn’t been at some point in time — affected in ways similar to my own experiences? And how do I know that the living things around me, including the trees and stones and valleys, are not aware of me and influenced in some way by my presence, by my intentions, by my actions?

All I know is that I will think of the spider at least a few times today.  If Someone spares a thought for me today, that is a comforting thing.

I am glad the shower didn’t kill the spider yesterday. And I hope he’s found a warm, safe, dry place out there in the wilderness of the back yard.

~ S. K. Orr