The Itsy Bitsy Spider

I am convinced that I have a special ability to spot spiders.

And by special ability, I mean that anything I see on the floor that doesn't immediately look familiar is automatically assumed to be a spider until proven otherwise.

A piece of lint? Spider.

A random piece of string? Spider.

A shadow? Quite possibly a spider.

I don't play about spiders. 😂

So, one afternoon, while our youngest was enjoying his bath, playing and minding his own little business, I spotted something.

And this time, it actually WAS a spider.

Now, I had two objectives. First, get rid of the spider. Second, make sure my son had absolutely no idea there was a spider. The last thing I wanted was to frighten him or interrupt his fun.

My husband and I have very different approaches when it comes to bugs. He's the kind of person who would rather catch them and release them back outside.

Me? I'm a little less gentle. 😂

If a spider has made its way into my house, I'm not particularly interested in helping it find its way back out.

So, naturally, I grabbed the nearest cleaning spray and started spraying.

And spraying.

And spraying some more.

Until that spider could barely move. Then I worked up enough courage to smash it.

Mission accomplished!

And the best part?

My son had absolutely no idea any of this was happening.

He just kept playing, completely unaware that I had gone to such lengths to take care of something he didn't even know was there.

And as I thought about that moment, something came to mind.

I wonder how many times God has done the same thing for me.

How many things has He protected me from that I never even knew were there? How many situations has He handled before I even realized there was something to be concerned about?

Dangers Seen and Unseen

Growing up, I remember us praying for God's protection from dangers seen and unseen.

It's one of those prayers I've heard and prayed so many times that the words have become second nature. And it's something I've carried with me into adulthood, especially as a wife and mother.

Lord, protect us from dangers seen and unseen.

But that afternoon, watching my youngest continue playing, those words took on a different meaning.

Because when we pray that prayer, we're not just asking God to protect us from the things we know are there. We're also asking Him to protect us from the things we don't.

The dangers we can't anticipate. The circumstances we don't see coming. The situations we don't even know to pray about.

And isn't that something?

I think sometimes we limit our understanding of God's protection to the things we can actually see. The accident we survived. The illness we recovered from. The difficult situation we made it through.

But what about the things we never experienced?

The accident that never happened. The financial hardship we unknowingly avoided. The relationship that didn't work out. The opportunity that fell through, only for something better suited for us to come along.

What if some of the greatest blessings in our lives are the things that never happened?

Sometimes We Recognize His Protection Looking Back

A few months ago, I made a significant career transition. I stepped away from an organization where I had invested years of my life and into a completely new opportunity.

It was exciting, a little scary, and required a whole lot of faith.

Recently, I've learned about significant organizational changes and restructuring taking place at my former organization.

I have no idea whether those changes would have impacted me. Maybe they would have. Maybe they wouldn't have. I'll never know.

But what I do know is that I had already transitioned into a new season before I even knew those changes were coming.

And that has caused me to reflect on God's timing in a different way.

Sometimes we recognize God's hand in the middle of a situation. Other times, we don't recognize it until we're looking back. And sometimes, I imagine, we'll never know all the things He was doing on our behalf.

As someone who likes to understand things, know the plan, and figure things out, that isn't always easy for me.

But I'm learning that I don't have to understand everything God is doing to trust Him.

Proverbs 3:5–6 reminds us to trust in the Lord with all our hearts and not lean on our own understanding.

We don't always get to see the full picture. Sometimes all we can see is the step right in front of us.

But God sees so much more.

Sometimes the Fire Still Happens

As I think about God's protection, I'm reminded of something that happened several years ago.

For reasons I couldn't explain at the time, I felt it on my heart to pray for my sister and my nieces & nephews. Specifically, to pray for their protection.

I didn't know why. There wasn't anything happening that I was aware of that prompted those prayers.

I just felt the need to pray.

Several weeks later, my sister and her children experienced a devastating house fire.

They lost everything.

Everything.

But they all made it out alive.

Even now, thinking about that experience gives me chills.

Because when I look back, I can't help but remember those prayers.

I didn't know what was coming. I didn't know what they would face. But I believe God knew.

And while I can't begin to explain why they had to experience something so painful, I am incredibly grateful that their lives were spared.

That experience reminds me of something important.

God's protection doesn't always mean the absence of hardship.

Sometimes the fire still happens. Sometimes the loss is real. Sometimes life changes in ways we would have never chosen for ourselves.

But that doesn't mean God has abandoned us or that He isn't present in the middle of what we're experiencing.

I think about the three Hebrew men in Daniel 3. They were thrown into the fiery furnace, yet they were not alone.

God didn't prevent them from entering the fire, but He was with them in it.

And while every difficult situation doesn't end the way we hope or pray, that story reminds me that God's presence isn't limited to the moments when life is going well.

Sometimes His protection looks like being spared from something. Sometimes it looks like being sustained through something.

And sometimes we simply have to trust Him with the things we may never understand.

A Different Kind of Thanksgiving

As we enter this season of Thanksgiving, I've been thinking about all the things I'm grateful for.

My family. My health. New opportunities. The people God has placed in my life. The prayers He's answered and the difficult seasons He's brought me through.

But this year, there's something else I want to be intentional about thanking Him for.

His protection.

Not just the protection I can recognize, but the protection I may never know about.

The physical protection. The emotional protection. The relational protection. The financial protection.

The protection over my family, my peace, and my future.

Psalm 121 reminds us that the Lord watches over our lives, our coming and our going.

What a comforting reminder.

Not that we'll never experience hardship or that every situation will turn out exactly as we'd hoped.

But that we are never beyond God's care.

And I think that's something worth being thankful for.

The Spiders We Never Saw

I keep coming back to that afternoon.

My youngest was simply enjoying his bath.

He didn't know there was a spider. He didn't know I was taking care of it.

And he never thanked me for getting rid of it.

Not because he wasn't grateful.

But because he didn't even know there was something to be thankful for.

Whew.

Think about that for a moment.

How many times have we failed to thank God for something simply because we didn't know He had done it?

How many blessings have gone unrecognized because they came in the form of something that never happened?

I've been praying for protection from dangers seen and unseen for as long as I can remember.

But this Thanksgiving, I'm realizing just how much I have to be thankful for in both.

For the dangers I saw and the ones I didn't.

For the prayers I understood and the ones I didn't.

For the doors that opened and the ones that closed.

For the fires we survived.

And for the spiders we never saw.

Because there's so much more to God's protection than what we can see.

And there's so much more to be thankful for than what we know.

This Thanksgiving season, I encourage you to take a moment to thank God not only for the blessings you can see, but also for the ways He may have been watching over you when you didn't even realize you needed it.

Lord, thank You for Your protection from dangers seen and unseen. Thank You for the things You've brought us through and the things we may never know You've kept us from. Thank You for watching over our families, our hearts, our homes, and our futures. Even when we don't understand Your ways, help us to trust Your heart. Amen.

P.S. My husband would probably tell you that spider deserved a second chance at life outside. I, on the other hand, am just thankful my son never witnessed the entire operation. 

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