(Photo by JackieLou DL from Pixabay)
By Sister Michele Morek
You need to make a firm and clear resolution to submit yourself totally to his will, and with a lively and steadfast faith receive from him what you have to do for love of him.
Saint Angela Merici: Testament
Jesus wished that we would have faith the size of a mustard seed. I have seen a mustard seed, and they are pretty tiny. But I think the most striking example of faith and trust I have seen in nature are parasailing spiders.
Sister Michele Morek
I watched a tiny spider — surely not too long after it had hatched from its egg –setting out on a “ballooning” or “parasailing” trip. It climbed to a high point (the leaf tip of a grass blade), faced the wind, stood on tiptoe, lifted its abdomen, and from its silk glands spun out a fine piece of silk, longer and longer until it was caught by the breeze and whooshed its tiny passenger off into the sky … the spider hanging off at the lower end. (See the picture — not a spider, but a human paraglider. A spider does not need all that fancy equipment, just a silk thread.)
I learned later that my spider was seeking new territory, less crowded with all its newly hatched brothers and sisters. Its “traveling silk” had acquired a negative charge, so it could float on either the breezes or the earth’s electrical fields, traveling at high altitudes and for hundreds of miles. Ballooning spiders have been seen 1,000 miles out to sea, and at 2.5 miles above ground.
Jesus must love those little spiders. Didn’t he send his disciples out with no extra food, money or even an extra shirt? (Luke 9:3) I wonder if I could set out on such an epic journey without any extras? I can barely go to town without my cell phone and a credit card!
- When did you last take a “leap of faith,” not knowing where it would take you?
- What provisions did you have to take for the journey?
- How did it turn out?
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