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Take: Bob Saved My Life
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Take: Bob Saved My Life
Joel 2:22
Do not fear, beasts of the field. NASU
I already mentioned that for this journey, we will be looking at 3 words: Come, Take, and Learn. At the beginning of relevant stories, I’ll label which word we will be referencing. In this story, we are going to be talking about “taking” advantage of what God offers.
Fears are a big part of our human nature. In fact, fear is such a problem that the Bible mentions it 313 times. Commands like “Fear Not!” and promises like “I will fear no evil” run throughout the Holy Word of God. God offers to “take” our fears if we will decide to trust Him. On the second day of the trip, I witnessed first hand just how thoroughly a fear could be removed.
Bob and I arrived at the KOA in Fort Stockton, Texas around 10:00 PM. We’d driven 700 miles and were tired. We set up Halleluiah and walked Belle in the pitch black of night. Finally, we collapsed into bed.
Morning came entirely too early and Bob and I both woke up sleepy and grumpy. We stumbled through breakfast, constantly bumping into each other. “Bob, you’ve got to communicate in this tiny camper. You can’t walk by me without asking me to move. I’m going to drop this hot pan of eggs,” I grouched.
“OK Cheryle,” he said, drawing out his words slowly to make his point. “I’mmmm goingggg toooooo steppp outside the camper nowwww.” I sniffed, wondering why I’d bothered to make him eggs.
“Belle,” I complained. “Your daddy isn’t being nice to me. Let’s go for a walk.” She perked up. I opened the door, stepped outside the camper backward, without looking down, and reached for Belle’s leash.
All of a sudden, I felt myself flying backwards. “Bob,” I screamed. “What on earth are you doing?” He had grabbed my clothes and jerked me back. I hadn’t even realized he was that strong.
“Belle, stay!” I heard him command.
To me, he said, “Look down.” Right by where I was standing was a giant black hairy tarantula. “He was an inch from your foot and about to crawl up your leg,” Bob explained.
“Belle, stay!” I screamed as I realized she could still jump down to the tarantula. “Bob, close the door!” Even though I was closer, Bob leaned across the tarantula and closed Belle inside Halleluiah.
“I want a picture,” I said excitedly. I ran around to the other side to grab my camera. When I came back around, Bob had picked up our outside mat and was trying to catch the frightening creature.
“What are you doing?” I demanded incredulously.
“I’m going to catch him so I can let him go in the woods,” he patiently explained. “They aren’t really dangerous you know. I was just afraid you would have a heart attack if he climbed up your leg.”
The words “that dangerous” didn’t bring me comfort. He looked deadly. “Kill him!” I heartlessly demanded.
“I’m not going to kill him,” Bob insisted. “Go ahead,” he said gently. “Climb onto the mat.” Was my husband really talking to something that looked like it was from a horror movie?
The spider cooperated and Bob walked over to the woods to release this long legged nightmare. (see pictures on photo gallery under Texas, Fort Stockton KOA)
Later, Bob looked up tarantulas up on the web. It turns out that they are really quite gentle, rarely bite, and actually make good pets. They can live for up to 35 years. What a shame it would have been if Bob had killed it!
The miracle of this story is that when I first married Bob, he was deathly afraid of spiders. After overreacting and almost wrecking the car over a spider, Bob knew his fear had ruled him long enough. He decided to take what God freely offered and asked to be released from his fear. He went to the library and got a book on spiders. He studied about the spiders, learned which ones were actually deadly, and touched the pictures as he prayed to be released from his fear. Obviously, his fear of spiders is gone.
Just for the record, while I already knew tarantulas weren’t deadly, if that creepy hairy creature had suddenly climbed up my leg, I’m not sure I would have survived. Bob and I both believe he saved my life.
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