Pastor Andy’s current sermon series is on Christmas stories. I have a Christmas legend that came by way of one of my favorite authors, William Barclay. The story goes like this:
When Joseph, Mary, and the baby Jesus were on their way to Egypt, as evening came they were weary and sought refuge in a cave. It was very cold – so cold that the ground was white with hoar frost. A little spider saw the little baby Jesus, and he wished so much that he could do something to keep him warm in the cold night. He decided to do the only thing he could – spin his web across the entrance of the cave to make, as it were, a curtain there.
Along the path came a detachment of Herod’s solders, seeking for children to kill to carry out Herod’s bloodthirsty order. When they came to the cave, they were about to burst in to search it, but their captain noticed the spider’s web covered with the white hoar frost and stretched right across the entrance to the cave. “Look,” he said, “at the spider’s web there. It is quite unbroken, and there cannot possibly be anyone in the cave, for anyone entering would certainly have torn the web.”
So the soldiers passed on and left the holy family in peace because a little spider had spun his web across the entrance to the cave. And that, so they say, is why to this day we put tinsel on our Christmas trees. The glittering tinsel streamers stand for the spider’s web, white with hoar frost, stretched across the entrance of the cave on the way to Egypt. It is a lovely story, and this much, at least, is true – no gift which Jesus receives is ever forgotten.
As you are in the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season, what gift to do you have for Jesus? A thoughtful gift for Him this season will not be forgotten.
Richard Hickam
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