Do Not Fear...

Did you know that it supposedly says in the Bible "Do not fear" 365 times? If you think about it, that is once for every day. I chose the word supposedly because I have not counted them myself. I began to try once deciding I wanted to look up every verse that says it, but that project got side tracked quickly.

I watched a teaching a couple of months ago at my kinship about fear. Dr. Jeremiah talked about how if the Bible says so many times not to fear, then by living in fear you are being disobedient to God. At the time, that hugely impacted my life and decisions I had to make in that stage of my journey. I was definately letting fear have a stronghold in my life. I have dealt with extreme fears of confrontation, conflict, even people in general (social anxiety and people pleasing).

These are some examples of higher levels of fear in our lives, but I think when the Lord tells us not to fear, He is even talking about the little things.... like tarrantulas.

When we got our orders for New Mexico, a friend of mine (who lived here before) began to tell me about the tarrantulas and scorpions that are prevelent in this area. I have to admit that this freaked me out a bit. Normally, spiders don't bother me too much, unless they are big and hairy. But when I was about my oldest daughter's age (14), I had watched this horror flick from the 70's about these huge masses of black tarrantulas taking over a desert town, pouring into all the houses and killing all the people. Even though this movie was not bases in truth, it did it's job in creating a fear, or mild phobia of tarrantulas.

So one of the things Paul and I did to lighten up the fact that we were moving to tarrantula-ville was to get our mascots. Now I think most of my friends have seen them..... they are cute stuffed animal spiders that are about the size of the largest spider known.... the Goliath Birdeater Tarrantula (10-11 in. in diameter). These cute NOT REAL spiders sit in our windshields, and they have even freaked out some poeple who are spider-phobic. Our "spiderman" Justin loves spiders so he wanted his own (we have three of them). When he took his spider into Great Aunt Dottie's house, she kindly asked it to leave (she's NOT a spider fan). But we think our fake tarrantulas are cute.

The second thing I did was to begin to educate myself. I think there are two basic types of people.... one reads everything they can to become educated on the subject and eliminate their fears, and the other wants to stay oblivious because knowing scares them more than not knowing. The "research VS. ignorance is bliss"...... I am a researcher. So Justin and I read about spiders and tarrantulas.

I learned that they are primarily solitary creatures..... so no herds of thousands of spiders are going to attack me. They also are afraid of people, so they are not going to chase after me to get me. And contrary to probable popular belief, they will not kill you. No one has ever died from a single tarrantula bite. Tarrantulas do not even want to bite humans... they prefer to only bite what they want to eat, and they do not eat people. In fact, they are more likely to shoot the hairs from their abdomens at you using their back legs if they feel threatened. This is one of their defense mechanisms, resulting in all these tiny little hairs that would get stuck in our pours, itching and irratating our skin and making us quite uncomfortable.

So having learned all this information, and also hearing that my friend only had one tarrantula in her garage once in two years of living here, I felt a little more at ease about coming to the southwest. But still I wondered if this would be enough.... I was fully expecting to freak out at the sight of one of these little black and brown monsters.

So last night I was talking to my dear frind Christina, and she asked me if I had seen any tarrantulas yet. I happily told her no but described all the current local warnings for rattlesnakes and scorpions. (There are 22 different kinds of rattlesnakes known in this area with five of them having poisenous venom.) So we wondered if maybe we were getting past "tarrantula season". I never did find out exactly when their mating season is, or how long throughout the year to expect to see them.

We talked on for about another ten minutes when all of the sudden I saw the black spider crossing the road. It was within a foot of the curb, about 12 feet from me, but only 6 feet away from where Justin was squatting down playing in the grass and dirt. I yelled at him to go into the house quickly..... and then yelled for him to get his dad. Then I told Christina (who was still on the phone) that she had jinxed me.

My first reaction was one of being startled and concerned (mostly about Justin), but once he was out of the way, I stood up to move out of its path. I was actually a little curious. So I walked over around the back of it and got a closer look, though I still stayed about 4-6 feet away. Paul came out and we watched it make its travels acrossed the yard. It was an interesting creature. I suggested he go get the camara, so he did. He took some pictures, and I suggested a video. So we have a short clip of the spiders crawling over the grass as I wonder aloud what do you do with them.... cause we don't want them in the house, and we aren't supposed to kill them.

Then I asked Paul if we should get the girls. At first I didn't think so because I didn't want to freak them out, but then I realized that I was not freaking out, and maybe it would be good for them to see them while we were there to talk about them so they would know what to look out for if they are later out on their own. Tricia came out to see, but Nikki chose to remain inside with her iPod.

I came inside to make dinner and was shortly informed that the spider was right outside the house by the front door. I did not like this thought very much, as I still do not want it inside with me. Paul asked if it was the same spider, and the kids thought it was, but we were not so sure. I walked out to the yard, and indeed saw the first tarrantula continuing on his path through the yard about 40 feet away. I walked right past the second spider (within 2 feet of it) and informed Paul it was a different spider... there were two.

Again I voiced my concerns about how do you keep them out of the house, and Paul assured me that it would probably be difficult for them to get in. So I went about the rest of my day, not fearing and not worrying about the spider. And I slept well last night. This morning as I went out into the garage, I noticed that the door leading out the back had a big gap in the bottom. At that point I realized that the most likely place for a tarrantula to get inside would probably be limited to the garage. There may be easy access there, but the doors and windows into the houses are much better secured and do not provide as easy access to these large spiders.

Then I started to realize the peace that the Lord had placed in me about these "little black and brown monsters". I do not need to fear because the Lord is protecting me. Of course I need to be aware and careful when coming into contact with these desert creatures (including rattlesnakes and scorpions)..... but I do not need to fear. Amazing, huh?

Lord, thank you for your protection and peace that you have placed over me and my family. Thank you for your amazing creatures, even when they are hairy with eight legs. Thank you for all of your amazing creation and for the opportunity to see it every day in the beautiful scenery all around me. I love you! Amen.