I first noticed him in there this morning. When I opened the water, he scurried to the side and I reduced the pressure to avoid washing him down the drain. As a joke, I tell people not to kill the bugs in my home, because they’re my pets. In reality, it’s just that I’d prefer to escort them out of my space if killing them can be avoided.
But this spider just wouldn’t leave the sink. All day, he hung out in there! At first I thought he was waiting for a friend with whom he’d planned a rendezvous but no guests had arrived by the afternoon. Then I figured the sides of the sink were too slippery for him to crawl out, so I helped him out of the sink, only for him to scurry back in.
Perhaps he thought it was ideal real estate to spin a web…Regardless, he was making it quite clear that he wasn’t about to leave and he seemed rather intent on settling down in my bathroom sink. Had he chosen some obscure corner in my apartment, I mightn’t have minded sharing the space. But the sink? Seriously?
It felt like I was tiptoeing around daddy long legs all day; trying not to wash him down the drain; trying to get him to leave my sink; as far as is spiderly possible, trying to get him to see the folly of his choice of a home. Finally, though, this evening, his probation closed. Since he wouldn’t leave the sink, I had to wash him down the drain.
As my leggy companion for the day disappeared down the drain, I thought about how God bears with us: How He tries to lead us in the path of life yet we keep returning to places of danger; how He waits patiently for us to trust His choices for us instead of stubbornly insisting on our own way.
And I thought about how, one day, if we persist in disregarding Him, disobeying Him, and just plain dissing Him, He will have to let us suffer the consequences of our choice for the wages of sin is death.
Because of all the time, effort and emotional energy I’d invested in getting daddy long legs safely out of my sink today, I was sad to have to wash him down the drain. Yet my disappointment is nothing compared to the grief it will cause God to have to let us go if we persist in disregarding Him. He hasn’t spent one day working on us; since the day you were born He’s been at it…and He’s still working, even now.