Sometimes You Have to Stand Back For a While

(or, If You Build It, He Will Come)

A series of nine square portals wrap around the inside walls of our den just below the ceiling. Some look out on a small grove of trees to the side of the house and some look out across the font pasture.  One afternoon a few weekends ago, a large Orb spider hung on a web outside one on the front wall.  I decided to take a picture of it for no reason other than to get up off of the couch, which I had been reclining on for far too long.  My muse had chosen the window in which a hand-carved wooden cross stands on the inside ledge.  I took the picture from inside.  It turned out that the glowing flame of the chandelier reflected in the glass and also made it into the photo.  Mrs. L. looked at the finished product and jokingly said that I should post it on Facebook without a caption and see how many commenters want to know what it means.  Then, as quickly as I had decided to photograph the spider, and about as randomly, I decided to get a bowl of ice cream and thought no more of the picture or the spider.

A few days later, while reading a story about the recent Colorado theater shooting and the miracle of one young girl's survival, I remembered the picture and it's meaning became all too clear:

"I say to you, you are Peter.

And on this rock I will build my Church and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it." 

The spider is a symbol of evil, waiting in the midst of the web of lies it spins to pounce on the unsuspecting and the complacent.  The flames are the suffering caused by sin that seem to spread across and engulf the world we live in.  In the midst of evil and suffering, however, stands the Cross.  Firm, immovable, ever present, and unafraid.  Good and evil co-exit in this world.  But be of good cheer and keep your chin up, we know how the story (and our story) ends!

Et cum spiritu tuo