© Patty Fitts. All Rights Reserved. My wife Patty received a Grace Drop one November day in the form of a pale green afghan from Ellen Eagan, of Alpena, Michigan, which she had made. Ellen and Patty have been great friends since seventh grade and Ellen’s father, Gilbert, was a beloved Episcopal priest in Alpena. Ellen found the following story of her father’s and I am passing it along to all of you:
I once read a story about a spider (a very respectable and well-behaved spider) that lived high up in the rafters of a large barn. But one day, as the spider looked down into the barn from its almost “heavenly” home, it began to wonder what life might be like “way down there.”
So adventuresome spider that it was, it dropped down on the end of its long slim thread, coming to rest on a beam many feet beneath. And finding its new surroundings very much to its liking, it wove a new web and set up a new home. And, as the days went on, it caught all sorts of flies – and grew fat and prosperous.
But then, one day – bored with all the ease and pleasures of life – it happened to look up, discovering a long, slender thread running up into the darkness high above. “I wonder what that thread is for?” it asked itself. “I can’t see any reason for its being there.” So it reached up – and broke the thread.
And, almost immediately, the spider’s little home – and its little “world” – collapsed. And it never knew why.
Too many people are rather like the spider. They tear loose the long slender thread that stretches down from far above their sight. And, then, they wonder why their homes, and their lives, and their little self-made “worlds” collapse.
There is a slender “thread” that stretches down from heaven that gives our lives sanity and meaning. It is God’s connection with us – and ours with Him.
Author: Gilbert A Runkel. Reprinted from Grace Drops, Volume 8 (2010).
I once read a story about a spider (a very respectable and well-behaved spider) that lived high up in the rafters of a large barn. But one day, as the spider looked down into the barn from its almost “heavenly” home, it began to wonder what life might be like “way down there.”
So adventuresome spider that it was, it dropped down on the end of its long slim thread, coming to rest on a beam many feet beneath. And finding its new surroundings very much to its liking, it wove a new web and set up a new home. And, as the days went on, it caught all sorts of flies – and grew fat and prosperous.
But then, one day – bored with all the ease and pleasures of life – it happened to look up, discovering a long, slender thread running up into the darkness high above. “I wonder what that thread is for?” it asked itself. “I can’t see any reason for its being there.” So it reached up – and broke the thread.
And, almost immediately, the spider’s little home – and its little “world” – collapsed. And it never knew why.
Too many people are rather like the spider. They tear loose the long slender thread that stretches down from far above their sight. And, then, they wonder why their homes, and their lives, and their little self-made “worlds” collapse.
There is a slender “thread” that stretches down from heaven that gives our lives sanity and meaning. It is God’s connection with us – and ours with Him.
Author: Gilbert A Runkel. Reprinted from Grace Drops, Volume 8 (2010).
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