Yesterday I said a word about some of the lore and legend
that surrounds the young child Jesus. The
passing of the Feast of the Holy Innocents reminds me of one of my favorite pieces
of Christian mythology. It seems that
the Holy Family was fleeing the soldiers of Herod on their way to Egypt. They needed to stop for a while, so they sought
refuge in a cave.
In the corner of the entryway there was a small spider. Now, the legends have it that the animals
always knew who the baby Jesus was. This
spider mused, “I surely would like to be able to do something to bring some
comfort to this baby.” Then it had an
idea. “I will spin a web across the mouth
of this cave. It won’t be much, but
maybe it will block a little bit of the wind, and perhaps hold a slight bit of
heat where the baby lay.” So, it got to
work and spun a thick web at the front of the cave.
Soon after, the pursuing soldiers arrived. One was about to search the cave when his
commander said, “Don’t waste your time in there. Look how thick that spider web is. Nobody’s been in there for days.” So, the soldiers moved on. And through the efforts of this tiny arachnid,
Jesus was spared.
As Mary and Joseph looked out of the cave the next morning, the
web was covered with dew. It sparkled in
the morning light. It is in recollection
of this good deed that we adorn our Christmas trees and other decorations with
tinsel in this season – because it looks like a dew-covered spider web.
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