September 7, 2021: Weeds and Spider Webs

“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart—these, O God, You will not despise” (Ps. 51:17, NKJV).

The morning after Tropical Storm Isaias brushed through my neighborhood, I went outside to check my garden beds. The soil along the slope of a small pine grove where the summer weeds were normally difficult to pull up was now unusually saturated, and the weeds came out easily.

I began pulling the weeds that had previously built strong roots within and around those beautiful evergreens. I thought about the “storms of life” that sometimes break us, revealing all of humanity’s weakness, and our need of a Savior whose everlasting arms are willing and able to pull us out of the gutter.

When I was done weeding, I saw woven spider webs at the top of the pine trees and gently swept them away. Right then I realized that nature was showing me God’s complete plan of salvation. He wants to cleanse us from our sins and renew our minds, where the “cobwebs” of life so frequently lodge.

Consider the spider web, so destructive and yet so frail. Those cobwebs are beautifully crafted, yet they trap flies and other insects.

Like spider webs, our habits can attract deception, selfishness and covetousness. But through a personal relationship with God, daily prayers, reading His Word and experiencing the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives, our Heavenly Father can sweep away our mental cobwebs.

Lord, have mercy on us all. Clean the weeds and the webs of sin from our lives, and give us Your heart. Amen.

Lama Garvey is an elder at the Hackettstown church in New Jersey.