After supper, Cathy walked with Alessandra out to the depot where her room was located and instructed her how to tuck in her mosquito net and double check for any insects. Alessandra grabbed the dress she planned to wear as a nightshirt and returned to the house to shower.
As her mind was filled with the potential fear of finding a bug in her bed, she headed for the bathroom and was about to put her towel down on the water barrel when an enormous, hairy spider scurried right over her foot to the other side of the bathroom. Alessandra’s blood-curdling scream brought the entire Carmichael family running.
“I’m betting you caught your first glance at our resident wolf spider. Isn’t that right, Alessandra?” Rob called on his way to her.
“Glance? My first encounter was a close encounter. Too close; it ran over my foot. What did you call that thing? A wolf spider? That was the biggest eight-legged thing I’ve ever seen!”
“I know what you mean;” Cathy sympathized, “they still give me the willies. Every time I meet one unexpectedly, I scream just as loud as you did now.”
“I guess I am now supposed to calmly bathe.”
Like Alessandra and her first meeting with a Congo wolf spider, each of us face fears, many exceedingly more serious than a run-in with a spider. When we risk anything for Jesus, we run the risk of meeting our fears head on. Paul gives this insight, “Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:10) In any situation, our fears, insecurities, or weaknesses get to be transformed by the strength of Jesus Himself. Let’s learn to practice leaning on His strength in any of our weak seasons. He IS our Strength.
