Water Spiders
“The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.” [Job 33:4]
In Europe, Asia, and parts of Africa lives a curious little spider that has its home under the water. The female water spider (also known as the diving bell spider) spins a tiny web in the shape of a bell, attaching it to stems of water weeds and plants just below the surface of a freshwater pond. All spiders need to breathe air, so the water spider takes its air along like a skin diver.
On the surface she traps tiny bubbles in the hairs of her body, then hurries home and brushes them off, releasing them under her web. The spider makes many trips to bring back air bubbles for her underwater bubble nest. The waterproof web becomes inflated with trapped air and makes a perfect diving bell where she lives, eats, and lays her eggs. If the fresh air is used up, the water spider returns to the surface to breathe and collect more fresh air bubbles for her home. Living below, and yet breathing the air from above, this little spider is constantly surrounded by water yet remains perfectly dry!
The water spider illustrates how Christians may be in the world but not of the world. No matter how much water surrounds the water spider, it still is able to breathe air because it takes a bubble of air with it wherever it goes. How can the Christian live with a constant connection to heaven while living in this sinful world? Through prayer. Like the breath of the soul, we can pray to Jesus no matter what our surroundings. Prayer is just as necessary to our spiritual life as oxygen is to our physical life.
I long for the day when we will be in heaven, but even now we may breathe the air of heaven through prayer. Jesus knows we are in the world, but we do not need to be “of” this world. “I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world” (John 17:15,16). We can continue to “breathe” in the world as long as we keep our connection with God.
