When I was a small child, I used to play in the back yard with a friend named Benji. I don’t remember much about Benji. We moved away when I was 6. I remember even less about Benji’s dad. But there was one incident involving Benji and his father that has always stuck with me.<\/p>\n
It happened one hot summer day in Benji’s side yard. His property backed up to ours and I could see his house from our back porch. I remember one day Benji’s dad had dumped a load of mulch in the yard. To a six year old, it was a huge pile. I’m guessing if I were to see that pile today, it would hardly be enough to fill my flower beds. Anyway, for me and Benji, it was a new playground.<\/p>\n
It has been my observation, and perhaps I have even noted it before, that piles attract kids like steal to a magnet. Put a pile or a puddle in front of any boy and he feels the sudden urge to jump in it.\u00a0 Benji and I were no exception.\u00a0 In no time at all, we where yelling and jumping and rolling around in those wood chips like a couple of lunatics.\u00a0 We were digging under, crawling over,\u00a0covering up, hiding in and bounding out of that pile.\u00a0 Wood chips were flying everywhere and life was good.\u00a0 Benji’s dad kept working, seemingly unconcerned that we were quickly spreading his mulch everywhere\u00a0but in the flower beds.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The fun turned to terror a few minutes later.\u00a0 Had I known that something else was living in that pile, I might not have been so eager to jump in.\u00a0 As I flopped around on top of the pile for the umpteenth time, I\u00a0glanced down at my leg.\u00a0 There,\u00a0slowly crawling up my blue-jeaned pant leg, was a giant spider.\u00a0 In my\u00a0memory, it was about as wide as my leg and had this giant sucking mouth.\u00a0 Only Benji’s dad knows what it really was.<\/p>\n
I yelled and screamed, barely intelligible syllibles exploding from my mouth.\u00a0 In a crazy\u00a0panick\u00a0I started kicking my leg but the spider just kept crawling up.\u00a0 This is how it would go down for me.\u00a0 I would be eaten alive by a giant spider.\u00a0\u00a0My life slowly sucked out by that giant sucker mouth.<\/p>\n
Lucky for me, it was not to be.\u00a0 Moments later, Benji’s dad came to my rescue.\u00a0 He came running over once he figured out the inspiration for the yelling and screaming had morphed from delight to terror.\u00a0 When he saw the spider, he quickly flicked it off my pants and squashed it with a shovel.\u00a0 I had been rescued.\u00a0 I would live to play another day.<\/p>\n
I remember being grateful that I had been rescued from the spider.\u00a0 But I also remember being a little upset that this relative stranger of a dad had done the rescuing.\u00a0 Where was my own father?\u00a0\u00a0 I soon realized he was not as close by as Benji’s dad, so he arrived on the scene a little later.\u00a0\u00a0Benji’s dad was closer, and though he seemed busy with his flower bed task, it was clear that he was also watching us boys as we romped through the wood chips.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I know now that this whole incident was no reflection on the attentiveness of my own father.\u00a0 He has rescued me many times.\u00a0\u00a0 I also know why\u00a0on that day, this\u00a0strange dad was the one to rescue me from the spider.\u00a0 It’s really pretty simple.\u00a0 He was a dad.\u00a0 He was close enough to hear me cry, so he came to help.\u00a0\u00a0That’s what good dads always do.\u00a0 They\u00a0rescue those in trouble.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It’s no wonder Jesus taught us to pray to our Heavenly Father ” . . . deliver us from evil.”\u00a0 He knew we would get in trouble.\u00a0 He knew there would be times when we suffer.\u00a0 He knew the devil would like to suck the life right out of us.\u00a0\u00a0 And He knew the Father would be close by, listening for our cry and ready to come to our rescue.\u00a0\u00a0 He knew it because, that’s what good Dad’s do.<\/p>\n
\u00a0But the Israelites said to the LORD, “We have sinned. Do with us whatever you think best, but please rescue us now.”\u00a0 Then they got rid of the foreign gods among them and served the LORD. And he could bear Israel’s misery no longer. \u00a0. . . and lest you think “rescue” means fix whatever problem I have, notice what the result of the “rescue” is in one of my favorites . . .<\/p>\n The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed, and will bring me safely to His heavenly kingdom; to Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen. When I was a small child, I used to play in the back yard with a friend named Benji. I don’t remember much about Benji. We moved away when I was 6. I remember even less about Benji’s dad. But there was one incident involving Benji and his father that has always stuck with me. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[61,60,59,58,52],"class_list":["post-736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-consider","category-misc","tag-dads","tag-fathers","tag-help","tag-rescue","tag-trials"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=736"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":759,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736\/revisions\/759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 – Judges 10:15,16<\/em><\/p>\n
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0– 2 Timothy 4:18<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"