The black widow spider was lurking under the water meter lid. It was a perfect place. A dark, hidden recess in the ground. Protected from the elements and almost never visited by man. Almost.
Typically, it is not my job to check the water meter, so I very rarely open the lid. However, yesterday I had to do some work on the outside water faucet. This particular faucet can only be cut off from the main at the water meter, which meant I had to open the lid and stick my hand down inside that hole in the ground if I wanted to turn the knob on the main shut-off.
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- My Water Meter
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- Water Meter with Spider
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- Wasp Spayed Spider
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- The black widow
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- Black widow red hour glass
I don’t know how every water meter lid works, but most all of the ones I have seen have a little hole by which you can grab and remove the lid. I assume the water department has a little tool they use to stick down in the hole and lift the lid. The tool I have . . . is a finger. So, with a little trepidation, I stuck my little finger into the hole on the lid and flipped it over. When I did, I got a big surprise. There on the underside of the lid was the biggest black widow spider I had ever seen. She was kicking and wiggling in her nest, very unhappy to be disturbed.
Thankfully, I was careful to flip the cover over and expose it rather than grab underneath the lid to lift it off. Otherwise, she may have bit me. I survived, unharmed. A can of wasp spray made sure she did not. This whole incident did remind me though, that some pretty nasty things like to hide in dark places.
For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light. Therefore He says: “Awake, you who sleep, Arise from the dead, And Christ will give you light.” See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
– Ephesians 5:8-16 NKJV