Greetings, friends! It’s been a hot moment, hasn’t it? We’re back though, with another thought of the day to enlighten you. I was finally taking a moment to relax in the bath, when a teenie little daddy long legged spider decided to meander its way along the side of my tub. Now, I don’t have any fear of spiders, especially one so small, but I didn’t want this little guy to fall into my bath, or worse, disappear from view, so I gently scooped him up and placed him along the edge of my dangling English ivy (which I am so proud of… it’s growing well on my bathroom window ledge…long and sprawling… I am hoping to weave it all through the mirror). Anyway, I placed the little guy along the edge of the vine, hoping he would follow the path into the heart of the plant and live happily eating the fruit flies or whatever little gnat things live in soils. He did not. He made a quick veer to the right, grasping at the smooth painted bathroom wall to start his ascent. Once he slipped and slid along the wall, he had to spot check a few pieces of web to swing over the window ledge. I didn’t watch him after that. I don’t know if he every made it to the plant, or the sunny window, or simply slid down the other side under the sink and whatever lurks under there.

And so… you guessed it… I mused about that little spider and wondered why on earth did he choose the more treacherous path when I clearly had shown him the easiest route? The quickest definition of a pathway is “a way that constitutes or serves as a path” — it says nothing of the difficulty of the pathway, nor the length of the route, nor the dangers along it. It is simply a “way” from point A to point B. Plenty of us have traveled along many a pathway — both easy and hard routes in our lifetimes. They are worth a thought and a look back to see how far we have come.

Most of you know, it has been a hard, long, cold, snowy winter here at Itsnotta Farm. The snow is still deep on the ground, the days are still bitterly cold, and my farm chores are tough. Gates are frozen open, two feet deep in snow. Entry ways to the barn are icy because when it did warm up for a few brief days, the snow melted. The barn is a skating rink. I need to clean out my stall bound bunnies, but everything is frozen to the ground. One day, the wind created huge drifts enroute to the coop, I was waste deep and shoveling my way along. I bump my head on the top of the chicken run because the snow has lifted me up a foot or so taller. Goat fencing can’t be started because the ground is solid and still buried. Needless to say, I think we are quite sick of it all! Spring could not come sooner.

Metaphorically speaking, we’ve been on a few pathways since moving out here. Adjusting to the weather was just one. We’ve had new schools, church, made new friends in a new community. I’ve been given several job opportunities and navigated that trajectory for awhile. Life is a seemingly endless pathway. And then you die. My faith would tell me that that isn’t the final checkpoint, though. The Bible tells us the pathway to Heaven is narrow and tough going. It’s a hard one to choose. Like my little spider, the challenges are real and sluggish. Choices we make now, will determine our fate. Is it worth the slow, arduous route to arrive in Heaven and eternal life? You bet it is!

I don’t know where you are, friend, on your pathway through life. I don’t know who reads my little public posts, or who shares them and why. I do know, God is faithful. He’s proven it time and time again. People around us try and set us on the path that is easy… one with few obstacles, an easy climb through the ivy. Sometimes, the sacrifice is worth the harder route. Sometimes, we need to plant ourselves and haul up over the ledge. It’ll be a bit more difficult for sure. Oh, we’ll have a few blessings along the way… someone will surely scoop us up every now and then and keep us from drowning; but it will all be worth it in the end. Trust me. Spring thaw is coming, and the pathways will soon be green again! And there will be plenty more spiders to watch.