Thin Threads
Sitting on my porch, awaiting the rising sun, there is a rare coolness in the August Texas air. Cool and still as whitetail deer enjoy a morning meal of grasses in the field. The only sounds at this hour are the crickets chirping and singing to welcome the day and the hum of bees in the pecan trees as they savor the annual sap arrival. The sun just now peeks one eye over the hill beyond with a lazy light beam reaching across the dew covers of the field to lengthen the shadows and illumine the new day. It rises lazily this morning, as though it, too, is enjoying the rare coolness of this summer morn, and doesn’t want to yet get out of bed. As it yawns and stretches and opens both eyes, the gleam, the sparkle dances across the meadow and awakens the earth. Birds begin their morning songs, cows begin to bray, and the squirrels begin their games of chase, making the scritchy scratchy rustling noises across the tree bark. A bird sits on the fence line with the sun at its back shining so brightly that its feathers look iridescent and flash sparks as it chirps and flicks its tail. A new day awakens and with it promise and hope and fresh possibilities.
As the sun kisses the grasses before me, a glistening delights my eyes…for connecting the grasses in a network of shimmering strands are thin threads of spider webs creating a glimmering netting among the grasses. From the slightest breath of breeze, these wisps shiver and reflect the light like strings of glittering diamonds. Thin threads of connection, so fragile, so tenuous, yet so strong. How long have they been there? Through what elements have they survived? Thunderstorms, strong winds, baking heat of the summer sun? So delicate and almost invisible they could be so easily trampled upon by animals or humans. Ah, thin threads of connection are so fragile. Threads of love, threads of hope, threads of faith, threads of friendship. How do they survive the elements of time, of distance, of change and circumstance? And, once a connection is broken, how does it ever re-connect? Or, was the thinnest of threads still connecting the two all along – fragile, delicate, almost invisible. Maybe those same elements of time and distance, change and circumstance can actually strengthen the bond of connection, thicken the threads of love, hope, faith and friendship. Some threads sparkle and reflect the light of their beauty more than others. Some reach greater distances and support the weight of other strands. Some are weak but have their own special glimmer just the same.
Spiders have toiled diligently to create this tapestry, and yet they have done what is instinctive and comes quite naturally to them. This is for food, for survival, for their very existence, their purpose for living. Do they even realize that by their daily existence they have created such a beauty that is a delight to the eyes? No, but God does. He provides the threads, the grasses, the promise of each new day. In Him is the hope in the possibilities. He blesses the sparkling strings of connection, the thin threads, each uniquely shimmering when touched by the sun.
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