Into the Unknown #1: The Spider's Leap

I stood on St Cuthbert's Cairn and took this picture of Lindisfarne. Closer inspection revealed that the cairn had been colonised by tiny spiders whose webs glistened in the sun. As I watched, I noticed something amazing.

While spinning a piece of web, the spiders kept getting caught by the stiff breeze. They would be borne along for a short distance, land somewhere new, and continue spinning the web. These tiny creatures looked like pioneer adventurers setting their sails for unknown shores, while retaining only the most slender connection to their old lives.

It was then that I had a "Robert the Bruce moment" (if you know the legend from the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314). In other words, an inspiration ...

This is what the last decade of my life has felt like - a series of leaps into the unknown. In 1997 I moved to Oxford (where I had no connections). That led me into two years of training for ordained ministry in Bristol (where I had no connections). And then a move here to Liverpool (where I had no connections). And it's all about to happen again ... another spider's leap beckons, as my current post will end in the next few months. It set me thinking about this well-known verse:

Blessed are they whose strength is in you
In whose hearts are pilgrim pathways. (Ps 84:5, my "translation")

I know that one day, as the Psalm continues, I will "appear before God in Zion", at the journey's end, but where in the meantime?

What spider's leaps are facing you in 2006?

Notes
1. "Pilgrim pathways" translates Heb. "m'silah", which here probably means "pilgrimage, religious trek, formally, highway, i.e., the act. of religious, often processional, travel to a holy place or site" (Swanson 1997). Literal translation is "highways in their hearts".

Comments

[Lorna]

I love the picture you painted. And Lindesfarne is an amazing and restful place. Last time I visited I flew a kite and ran into the wind laughing.

God is good. He will be wherever you land. You can rest on that promise

[wilsonian]

I don't know what's ahead for me... seems I've been sensing change coming for so long, but it never seems to materialize.

I really look forward to seeing what God has in store for you... :)

[hopefulamphibian]

A lovely and very helpful image - thanks (and of course, resonates a lot for me having leapt from London to Bristol to here - and now sharing your experience of not knowing what's next).