God and the Spider
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>During World War II, 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 had lost touch with his comrades.
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>Alone in the jungle, he could hear enemy soldiers coming in 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 that once the enemy
>soldiers looking for him 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. Amen."
>After praying, he lay quietly listening to the enemy begin to draw
>close. He thought, "Well, I guess the Lord isn't going to help me out
of
>this one." Then he saw a spider begin to build a web over the front of
his
>cave.
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>As he watched, listening to the enemy searching for him all the while,
the
>spider layered strand after strand of web across the opening of the
cave.
>"Hah, he thought. "What I need is a brick wall and what the Lord has
sent
>me is a spider web. God does have a sense of humor."
>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 to his,
he
>got ready to make his last stand. 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 quite a while.
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>"Lord, forgive me," prayed the young man. "I had forgotten that in you
a
>spider's web is stronger than a brick wall."
>We all face times of great trouble. When we do, it is so easy to
>forget what God can work in our lives, sometimes in the most
>surprising ways. And remember with God, a mere spider's web becomes a
brick
>wall of protection.
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