Spider, spider burning bright...

...which is not, I know, the way the little poem goes, but which perfectly fits what I've been seeing in my mind's eye lately.

I chatted with a friend the other day--a woman who is a frequent prayer partner of mine--about how the "prayer prompts" in my life seem to to be caught up in some sort of exponential expansion these last few months. For instance, lately, I keep "seeing" phosphorescent or flourescent--not sure which--spiders. I'll be walking along, carrying a laundry basket, free as a lark of all cares when poof, my mind is filled with the image of a green glowing spider, or just as I'm on the "cusp of sleep" (an apt description of the place where many visions project themselves, as given by another young visionary friend of mine) and similarly glowing droplets will hang on cobwebs in a field of pitch black.

For a few weeks I've wondered what is the meaning of those thematic images that suddenly and inexplicably pop into my head. I think about the fact that my husband--the man who is one of the most fearless men I know--has an irrational fear of one thing only: spiders. Then I notice in the news feed that a strange discovery has been made on the far side of Mercury--a spidery looking land feature that gives credence to the hypothesis that the small planet is shrinking. I think about the fact that the ancient Greeks or Romans--though they did not believe in the Hebrew God still had to give a nod to His sovereign creational Spirit of truth and revelation-- even they named this planet the Messenger planet.

So although it might seem strange, and although I don't quite know why, I find myself praying for this little planet: I pray that if Mercury is to become bright with pupose according to the light of the One in whom there is no darkness; if it is to be so lit that even its spidery dark side, and even that part of space that it calls home become prominent against the darkness that enfolds it; then may these indeed be aglow with divinely prescribed destiny. I pray that it might follow its courses and meet its future according to the power hidden in the hand of God.

Now I wonder is my prayer for Mercury the planet, for someone connected with the "life" of this little world, or is this prayer circuit triggered somehow for both?

Too weird.