Spider Webs, Fingertips…. Age Old Wisdom

“Their confidence hangs by a thread. They are leaning on a spider’s web.” Job 8:14 (NLT) 

The other night, I walked outside smack dab into a spider web. The web was large, strong, and wrapped around my face, entangling my glasses. I started laughing to keep from freaking out as I tried to remove the web. As I was swatting it, I thought about my mom, Essie Mae Brown Chever, and her spider web episode. According to mom, as a young girl, hoeing weeds in the field, she accidentally chopped off the tip of her finger. How this happened, I do not remember. All I know is when she explained it, it made sense. I can see mom smiling as she holds up her finger. I say, “they put the tip back on crooked.” Mom just smiled and agreed. She went on to explain how she ran to her grandmother holding her finger with the severed tip. Her grandmother quickly grabbed some spider web and reattached the tip by wrapping the web around the finger; hence, the crooked tip. I recently googled “ can spider webs be used as bandages?” I learned spider webs have natural antiseptic and antifungal properties which help clean wounds and prevent infection. (Bandages, Loredo, P. M.D., 2019)

Then, I started thinking about one summer in Georgia. My brother, Billy, my sister, Alice, and I spent all our summers in Sumner, Georgia with our grandparents, William Chever and Alice Mathis Chever. Our sister, Arie and brother, Bobby preferred staying at home in St. Petersburg. Playing barefooted outside, I stepped on a rusty nail sticking out of a board. With the board attached to my foot,  my grandfather grabbed it and yanked out the rusty nail. My grandmother gathered what looked like weeds.  I hobbled to their bedroom, sat in a chair in front of the fireplace. My grandfather put the weeds in a can, lit it, fanned it, until it started smoking. While he was working on the smoking can, my grandmother  beat the bottom of my foot with a stick. She said it was to get the poison out. Once the smoke was heavy; no fire, I put my foot on top of the can. My grandfather strapped my foot in place over the can with a rag.  I sat in front of the fireplace with my foot on that smoking can for a long time. Afterwards, my foot was fine. No doctor. No tetanus shot. 

…. Spider webs, a smoking can…. 

Amazing, I thought, the knowledge our grandparents had without modern conveniences, technology. They used what the Lord provided, plants, herbs, mixed with prayer to perform miraculous treatments. I can still hear my grandmother praying under her breath as she beat the bottom of my foot. 

God is the same today as HE was yesterday. If my mom survived chopping off her fingertip with a dirty hoe and have it reattached with spider webs. If I survived stepping on a rusty nail and have it healed by smoking it over a can of herbs.  How much more can I succeed with all I have access to today? The key, to me, is the same as it was back then, faith in a Higher Power. God. 

God, thank You for reminding me You are the same today as you were yesterday. I put my complete trust in you.