"Howard, look at this!" I gasped as I saw an odd brown object on my purse. We had just gotten in the car to go to church on this Mother's Day morning. I had grabbed my beautiful, black patent purse, one I hadn't carried in a while, to go with the shoes I was wearing. "It's a spider!" I shuddered as I saw its angular legs poking up by the fat, oval body. "I wonder if it's a brown recluse!" I exclaimed. He said to kill it, so I grabbed a wadded tissue over it and heard a pop as I smashed it under my foot.
I didn't know if I had brushed against a shrub as I came off the porch, maybe picking it up that way, or if it was in the car. But since the purse had been atop a tall armoire in the bedroom, it may have come from there. Anyway, I thought no more about it as we hurried on to church.
My husband was to teach Sunday School in the absence of the regular teacher, and he had come armed with several Bibles, booklets and papers as well as his guitar! The lesson was from Acts and the coming of Pentecost, so he couldn't resist singing his old favorite, "Pentecostal Fire is Falling." It was a novel and entertaining class to say the least!
Following our morning worship, the pastor introduced a lady speaker who addressed the Mother's Day crowd, especially, of course, all the mothers present. It was an inspiring message, but she was very soft spoken, and my husband kept nodding off during the service, of which I became aware when his Bible kept sliding from his knees to the floor! After his studious week of preparing for teaching, and arising early this morning, I knew he was exhausted and sleeping in God's rest!
All the mothers were invited to come forward for prayer after the message. When the altars were lined from wall-to-wall, husbands and fathers were asked to stand behind their wives and/or daughters and pray for them. It was a very moving time of the service, and I really appreciated Howard's prayers as he put his hands on my shoulders and prayed for me. Tears and hugs were the order of the day at the conclusion of the service.
I wasted no time when I got home in researching Brown Recluse spiders on the internet. The picture I found was identical! When I told our son about it during his Mother's Day call, he asked if it had a violin pattern on the back. I hadn't seen one, since I didn't examine it closely. We went out to the car where the wadded tissue was still on the floor, and under a magnifying glass, I could see the tell-tale markings on the shriveled shell!
A little later, I noticed a scraped-looking red bump on my wrist! I read all the symptoms, and began feeling truly bad! But perhaps I was just tired, and after a rest and pain reliever I felt fine. Except for the fact that I was a little broody about having no kids on Mother's Day. We all live far apart, and even though I loved their phone calls and telephone visits, I missed family. We'd had a wonderful dinner, made at home to avoid restaurant crowds, but how to fill the rest of the day? Nothing suited, so I'm afraid I was a mopey mommy most of the day.
I got to thinking later, though, that my pitying thoughts were something that was creeping in, like the Brown Recluse spider, spoiling my happiness and appreciation for all the good things and blessings in my life. My husband, home, health, church and all the Lord has given me. I have no room for spiders in my life. In fact, we bought an insect bomb to set off in our house. Reading the Bible at the breakfast table this morning was the perfect bomb to explode on the enemy, the devil!
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