Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Spider Eyes

I was visiting my mom's house yesterday, and after dark, my brother showed me something I never knew before. In my mom's yard, he pointed a flashlight beam at the ground, to a point maybe 30 feet away. There were two green pinpoints of light. Keeping the beam directed at that exact spot, we walked up to it, and it was a spider. As he pointed the flashlight around the yard, sometimes even as far as 60 feet away, we saw many green (and sometimes blue) pinpoints of light, and each time it was a ground-hunting spider, usually a wolf spider. Some were as long as your finger, and others were as small as your fingernail. They were all over the yard, all around us. If it weren't for my brother showing me all those spiders with the flashlight, I would have been totally unaware that there were so many spiders surrounding us.

As we go through our daily activities, how much angelic and demonic activity goes on all around us that we are completely unaware of? How many times do angels intervene in human lives, or demons whisper temptations or deceitful lies into human minds, while we go about our daily tasks, ignorant of such activities? If we could peel back the curtain to the spirit world, what types of activity would we see? How many interventions or spiritual activities would we see that were influenced by the prayers of believing Christians?

Even more importantly, how many people cross our path at the store, at the gas station, in our neighborhood, and all around us, every day, who are lost and on their way to Hell? Do we care enough to tell them about Jesus? How many people die in this world every day only to spend their eternal destination in Hell, while we go about our daily business, completely unaware of the lives that are lost forever?

Let us take advantage of the spiritual light of God's Holy Word, the Bible, to give us spiritual wisdom to see through the darkness of this world. To do this, we must spend time in God's Word, and let it soak into our thoughts. Let us also pray that the Holy Spirit would shine His holy light on those things in our lives, and in the lives of others, that we need to be aware of and address.

(Regarding eyes reflecting light: Dogs, cats, deer, raccoons and even some moths also have eyes that will reflect light at night. They all have a tapetum lucidum (Latin: "bright tapestry"), a shiny layer behind the retina. Light passes into their eye, hits the retina, reflects from the tapetum and hits the retina again. In other words, it reflects visible light back through the retina, increasing the light available to the photoreceptor, contributing to the superior night vision of some animals, because it improves vision in low-light conditions. This makes things look much brighter, making it easier to see or hunt at night. Many of these animals are nocturnal, especially carnivores that hunt their prey at night.)

4 comments:

Dr. Russell Norman Murray said...

'As we go through our daily activities, how much angelic and demonic activity goes on all around us that we are completely unaware of?'

Good question. From a Biblical perspective, this realm exists.

Ephesians 6: 12

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

Jeff said...

Thanks, Russ.

Appropriate verse.

nitewrit said...

jeff,

Good imagery. So much we don't see that surtrounds us.

Larry E.

Jeff said...

Nitewrit,

Thanks, Larry.