The Itsy Bitsy Spider

This morning, a small black spider appeared in my bathroom sink.

I’d gotten out of the shower and was brushing my teeth when I looked down. There he was trying to discretely exit the bathroom sink before spotted. A challenge indeed for a jet-black itsy bitsy spider on a gleaming white ceramic basin.

Without a moment’s thought, I washed him down the sink along with my toothpaste.

Done.

Or so I thought.

I continued on my morning routine when I looked down and lo and behold up the basin climbed the same resilient spider.

I washed him down again.

Done.

Wrong again.

My daughter came in for me to fix her hair. As I began to pull her newly shortened bob into a ponytail, she yelped. “I’m not pulling,” I responded. “NO! There’s a spider in the sink!,” she replied.

Haha.

So he was.  The itsy bitsy spider.  Climbing up the water spout.

I washed him down my sink FIVE times. I actually started feeling guilty by time number four. This fellow deserved to live, I thought. On the last wash, I determined I’d catch him on his way back up and release him to the great outdoors. He probably wouldn’t make it long, but he’d die happier.

But alas, rinse number 5 turned out to be his end. He never reappeared even though she and I both anxiously awaited his return.

I couldn’t help but think how our journeys can resemble that small spider’s.

Particularly given what my mind had been full of as I was praying this very morning.

Life can wash us down the sink and it’s up to each of us to fight our way back up that dark drain and try to move forward.

How many times can we get knocked down before we lose the will to stand back up?

The answer is different for everyone.

But what if right when you’re at the breaking point, just when you’re thinking I can’t do it any longer, that’s the break through point?

What if that spider had climbed up one more time? He was exhausted. Defeated. More than a little of an underdog. Yet, after seeing his resilience, I’d decided to set him free. He just needed to come back one more time.

I don’t know what you’re facing today. Whatever it is, stand back up.

Get back in the ring.

Climb out of that drain.

Be brave despite what those past setbacks might make you believe the future holds.

Numbers 10:9 When you go into battle in your own land against an enemy who is oppressing you, sound a blast on the trumpets. Then you will be remembered by the Lord your God and rescued from your enemies.

1 Samuel 17:37, 45 (David speaking about Goliath): The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine…. You come against me with the sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel.

Psalm 18:18-19: They confronted me in the day of my disaster, but the Lord was my support. He brought me into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me.

Your, my, his, our next break out might be the moment of break through.  The spacious place. The promised land.