Article September 10, 1990 Issue

Of spider webs and the design of Life

Our first and most important relationship is with God. All other relationships radiate from this primal connection.

Jane W. Hastings

The summer that I turned twelve was the first time I ever watched a spider weave its web. As my mother and I sat on the dock at sunset, enjoying the quiet beauty of the afterglow and its reflection on the peaceful inland lake, we noticed a spider weaving its web between a post and a piling. It was a web that's made in the familiar cartwheel design: the radial threads running from the center to the circumference, and the connecting spiral threads running between them.

We certainly had front row seats for a performance I've never forgotten. Since that time I've observed many of these lovely, functional creations with interest. Recently, as I walked out our front door, I noticed a large orb spider weaving this familiar design between the honeysuckle trellis and the corner of our house. You guessed it—of course I stopped to watch! But this time the execution of the design seemed to carry a message, a lesson. I felt as if I were watching the drawing of a graphic illustration of relationships as they are set forth in Christian Science. A marginal heading (that had caught my attention before) from Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy came to mind, and it really lighted up. It reads, "Some lessons from nature."

Watching the web develop, I noted that all the radial threads share the common central anchoring, but each radiates on its own from the center to the circumference. How similar, I thought, to the way we all share our common Parent, the one Father-Mother God; but we each have our own individual identity, contacts, experience, and purpose. Our primary relationship is to God. Then come our relationships to each other. As in the spider's web, until the radial threads are spun and anchored, there's nothing for the spirals to connect with—no supportive framework there. As we see better and better that God is the center and circumference of each one's life, that man is in fact the expression of the divine Mind, the human outcome of this is that we become better links to and for others' lives. Whether the relationship is that of friend, family, business, neighbor, nation—any and all of the myriad connections people have with each other—it can really work only if its connections are sound and stable, grounded in the Principle that is God.

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