Spider eyes

My husband bought me the niftiest little item a while back. It’s a little LED light on an adjustable headband. Since I like to read in bed at night, and he likes to sleep in the dark, it’s a win-win situation. Even though it is a small device, the twin LED lamps are very strong. (It even has a red light setting. When I turn that on in the dark, all you can see are two beady little red eyes. I look like the Terminator!) I’ve started using it to walk the dogs at night since it is so dark on our rural 20+ acres. It’s great for seeing the dogs when they are trying to hide. I just call their names and they instinctively turn their heads toward me, their eyes reflecting in the light -- giving away their location.

And yes, I look like the biggest nerd with this light attached to my forehead!

Since this light moves with my head and eyes, I have avoided holes, debris and other obstacles that would have tripped me up in the dark. In the early morning, the dew sparkles along the ground under the LED light. One night, I noticed the sparkling in the grass, but realized that the temperature hadn’t reached dewpoint yet. Upon further inspection, I was amazed to find that the sparkling that I had been seeing at night wasn’t water sparkling – but spider’s eyes. Bazillions of them. Big ones, baby ones. Mostly garden spiders.

I guess spiders don’t have eyelids.

When I bent down to inspect several of them, they didn’t move. Prodding them with a stick didn’t produce a reaction, other than to curl up their legs and play dead. Maybe it was too cold, or maybe the superbright LED light hypnotizes them.

I’ve lived out here for several years and walked the dogs in the dark more times than I can count. Now, I’m not an arachnophobe, but the realization that I've been walking over, around and through a bunch of those leggy creatures in the dark does tend to unnerve me a little.

Isn’t this why we have lights? To illuminate the possible dangers?

Many times we are attracted and captivated by the sparkling lights. The world can be full of pretty things that glisten. But we must thoroughly inspect and investigate these things before we pick them up and make them part of our lives. They must be held up to the powerful light of God’s Word.

Even more treacherous, there are things that sparkle and glisten in the church or religious circles that can cause us to stumble on our walk with Christ. Just because something is wrapped in religion or spirituality, doesn’t make it right. We must scrutinize that thing under the mighty Lamp of the Word of God and ask that Great Discerner, the Holy Spirit, to open our spiritual eyes to the truth, to remove the scales from our eyes. We must have God’s Word implanted in our hearts so that we can distinguish truth from fiction.

So. Are you gonna wear your headlight? The world already thinks we are crazy. Let ‘em think we're nerds, too.

Psalm 119:105
Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.