When you let your mind wander, do you ever find yourself asking odd questions?

Such as, “Why doesn’t glue stick to the inside of the bottle?”

Or, “How do you grow a seedless fruit?”

Or how about this one:

“Why don’t spiders get caught in their own webs?”

I can’t help you with the first two, but I do have an answer for the third.

When spiders build their webs, they draw out silk from their abdomens with six spinnerets. The key is that they’re able to emit different types of silk for different purposes.

The spider first constructs a frame for its web. Then, it lays down spokes of non-sticky silk to use as walkways.

Next, the spider weaves spirals of connecting lines between the spokes using sticky silk. This is for ensnaring small insects that it will later eat. The spider knows to avoid walking on these gluey strands.

A spider can also spin stretchy silk for the centre of its web, or extra-strong silk for the anchor lines.

Whichever type of silk the spider decides to spin, it all has a specific purpose. And even though the types of silk differ, they all come from the same source.

I think we can borrow this analogy to describe how we can receive quite different things from God’s hand.

Oftentimes, we expect everything we get from God will be unadulterated good. And most certainly, God is a good Father.

But the things we receive from His hand might not look very good to us at the time. In fact, they might look like problems, challenges, or outright hardship.

When we go through difficulties, we might think that this can’t possibly be of God. We sometimes expect Him to give us a life of ease and comfort, and to spare us from the troubles that beset others.

But that’s not how God works.

As Job asked, “Should we accept only good from God and not adversity?” (Job 2:10)

Sometimes, in God’s wisdom and providence, He allows us to experience challenges.

We can ask Him what we can learn from the problem, whether we contributed to it in some way, and if there’s anything we can do to hasten its end. But we should always trust that God is working out His purposes in our lives.

Just as a spider can spin sticky or non-sticky silk, God sometimes portions out to us things that seem diametrically opposed to one another: good and not-so-good.

But God promises that everything that happens to us works together for our good and His glory (Romans 8:28).

So let’s not be astonished when we receive very different things from the same Source.

Whatever we get from God’s hand, it all has a purpose.

And the Cross not only assures of us God’s love for us, it tells us that He can bring exceeding good out of something bad.

So when you go through challenges, hold fast to your faith. You’ll see God’s goodness in the end!

“We give great honour to those who endure under suffering. For instance, you know about Job, a man of great endurance. You can see how the Lord was kind to him at the end, for the Lord is full of tenderness and mercy.”

james 5:11

© 2022 Lori J. Cartmell. All rights reserved.