Brown Recluse or Garden Spider? Know Your Enemy.

I am loving these beautiful mornings!! Today while I was outside watering plants basking in the sun and cool air, I noticed a large brown spider struggling in my pool. My immediate reaction was to rescue it until I wondered whether it was a friend or foe.

By the time I ran into the house, it had found something floating in the pool and rested on top.

So, I figured I had enough time to do a little Sherlock Holmes investigation.

I pulled up a pest control podcast and learned a thing or two about the brown recluse spider.

    •    It has three pairs of eyes in a U-shape in the front of its face. Most spiders have eight eyes.
    •    It has a violin shape image on it’s back between its head and abdomen with the handle of the violin pointing towards the back.
    •    The abdomen is a flat color of brown with no distinguishing marks.
    •    In a typical pose brown recluses are only about an inch in size.

Fortunate for this little guy, he turned out to be a large brown garden spider. So, I let it live. Ha!! I grabbed a small net we keep by the pool and rescued him. Who knows I may encounter him again, but this time I will know whether he is a friend or foe!

I got to thinking about distinguishing between friends and foes, and how important it is to know the difference.

One can’t read the Scriptures without noticing that the people of God have enemies!

    •    From the very beginning, Adam and Eve had an enemy slithering about in paradise.  
    •    The Israelites had an enemy who attempted to thwart their numbers by killing their young and enslaving them.
    •    David, anointed by God to be king, had enemies who attempted to thwart God’s plan.
    •    The prophet Jeremiah had enemies who threw him into a pit because they didn’t like to hear the truth.
    •    And Jesus had His enemies. They understood very well what He was saying, they just didn’t like it. They didn’t like the message and eventually turned against the Messenger!

It is easy in today’s modern society to think there are no such things as enemies. We like to think all ideas are the same and are of equal worth. Even as Christians we sometimes struggle with calling someone or something our enemy.

Doesn’t God tell us to love our enemies? Yes, He does.

But we are also told to know the difference between good and evil!! Loving our enemies is one thing. Recognizing there is evil in the world and that we are at war is another.
This requires knowing the truth and knowing it so well, that we can tell the difference between what is good and what is evil!! Hebrews 5:13-14

On September 11, 2001, America was attacked. The two towers had come down and thousands of lives had been lost. Who can forget that day? I’ll never forget seeing photos of people holding one another’s hands as they jumped out of windows to their deaths.

What had happened that day was evil!

There were also heroes that day. People who recognized evil for what it was and gave their lives to do good!!

My daughter posted a photo on Facebook of Todd Beamer. A young husband and father who together with several others on a plane took down the terrorists and crashed the plane.

Not a lot of time for discussion and debate. Just a simple knowledge of what is good and evil. Todd chose the good and many lives were saved!!

My daughter was a young teenager when this occurred. As a wife and mother she now recognizes more deeply the sacrifice, knowing if her husband was on that plane he would do the same.

She writes, “We thank those who sacrificed everything to save others on that day so many years ago. And to their families…your sacrifice is not forgotten.” I cried.

Let’s not be lulled into complacency, the battle between good and evil still rages.

May we be ever vigilant in recognizing the difference between a “brown recluse” and a harmless “garden spider.” Our lives depend upon it.