(If you are an arachniphob, I apologize in advance. But read anyway!)

It started with my husband’s fascination with the garden spider. There was one in the front flower bed that he made sure no one bothered because “they are GOOD spiders.” So, we left it alone.

Truthfully, I’m not all that bothered by spiders, as long as they stay outside, and aren’t of the variety that can hurt me. This one was out of the way, and they do eat a lot of other insects that we find pesky. It’s a nice relationship, as long as they play by the rules.

Then, I noticed two more along the back of the house, just outside two of our windows. I found this a little troubling, even though they were still outside, because one is okay, but three…I just wasn’t sure about letting three hang out.

But there they were, right outside the window, where I could watch them from behind the safety of the glass, and they were kind of interesting.

(Hang with me, spider-haters. I have a point, I promise.)

I watched them catch their unsuspecting prey, weave their intricate and beautiful webs, and suddenly begin to grow bigger.

A LOT bigger.

Their backsides started to expand like someone was pumping them full of helium, and I ran to the great and powerful Google to find out what they looked like when they were about to lay eggs.

Really, I needn’t have bothered, because I could’ve just waiting until the next morning when I saw this:

Yes, they were the proud mama’s of these little spider sacs. They can contain up to 1000 babies.

Special, huh?

And, you know what? Before we knew what was happening, they each produced TWO MORE.

I finally told Kevin that, while they were GOOD spiders, I wasn’t sure we really needed 6000 garden spiders hatching on the house. He agreed, and they will be removed this weekend.

Those spiders were made to live a relatively simple life. They build a web, catch food, eat food, and reproduce. They are singularly-focused, doing what they were made for, and then, after the egg-laying season in the fall, they die before winter’s end, their purpose fulfilled.

Certainly, our lives are much more complex. We are not driven by instinct alone, but by a mind that can reason and choose. It seems that should really help us out, yet we tend to get so distracted in all the extraneous things in our lives, that we start to lose our way. At the end of the day, our true purpose in this life is pretty simple and straightforward. We work to take care of our basic needs of food and shelter, we mate and reproduce, we love and worship and try to leave something of value behind.

Maybe the spider really has it right, after all. Maybe the Singular-Focus is what cuts through all the distraction and brings us back to what’s important, our purposes fulfilled.

I’m glad I got to see all this. It was a good reminder to me. But that doesn’t mean they, and their 6000 babies, aren’t out of here on the next Greyhound headed to the back pasture.

“Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:2 NIV