Requiem for a Spider

I did something bad today. I immolated a spider in our woodstove. I don't think it stood a chance, what with the 4 hour Duraflame log I used to kickstart things. I did try to get it to climb onto the poker when I saw it crawling in the back corner of the stove, but I think crawling near the flames licking the newspaper kindling was a bit too much for its tiny brain to accept, as well as crawling onto a metal bar instead of staying on the familiar wood log, which unfortunately was piled on top of the Duraflame log.

*sigh* I know some of you are probably laughing now. It's just a spider, you say. Well, yes. But, it is a living creature, and where possible we are supposed to preserve life. Just look at Genesis 2:15, "Then the LORD God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it." You see that? "Keep it", as in, take care of it. All of it. The plants, animals, the whole works. Heck, it was Adam who named everything (Gen. 2:20).

This is the spring of my particular breed of environmentalism. I believe we have been entrusted with all of these resources, and we are to take care of them and cultivate them. So even though a lowly, tiny spider might seem insignificant, it had a job to play, too. And frankly I was too lazy when I saw it skitter over the log, to take it outside and shake it off. I hoped that the spider had fallen off onto the logs below, but I didn't check. I was careless. Like many, I thought, "It's just a little spider," and recklessly shoved the log into our stove and lit the fire. But seeing it skitter around in there, well, it made me realize that I was just being callous. I was too lazy to put the spider outside in the garden, where he/she belonged. Instead I just tossed him away, subjecting him to a terrible death by fire. :(

Yes, it was just a little spider. But at what point does callousness turn into cruelty? I think our society would be far, far better off if we all checked ourselves for callousness in the "little things" before we reach the cruel stage. Because it's insidious, and deadly, because at the heart of it, it's sin. And we need to be mindful of our attitudes about life, however small and insignificant it appears to us.

I mourn for the spider. I'm sorry. :~(