Over the weekend I was shopping for groceries when a pesky bug began harassing me. While I was doing my best to wave it away, two young boys started whispering to each other and staring at me.
Suddenly the older one said, “Scuse me, ma’m. Scuse me! You have a giant spider in your hair!”
As I began batting at my head, the boys moved closer to their mother. Then the younger one yelled, “Now it’s on your face!”
Apparently the spider had been playing on my neck, head, and face for quite a few store aisles. I slapped at myself like a woman possessed, bending over, shaking my head and squealing, “Yikes!”
Finally the culprit fell to the floor, a giant daddy long legs. Though its body was only the size of a plump pea, his 8 long legs made him seem much bigger. The older boy ran toward me, and with two whacks of his shoe, the spider was dead.
“Wow! Thanks for defending me!” I said. He looked up as if expecting to see other spiders in my hair, and I appreciated the risk he’d taken in coming so close to creepy me. Then I looked down the aisle where something interesting was happening. The boys’ mother was busy ruffling her own hair, bending toward the floor as I had, apparently getting rid of her own spider.
“You too?” I said.
“I don’t know!” she said. “There better not be! I don’t want any of that!” She continued swatting her forehead, flicking the hair around her ears, shaking her head.
After thanking them, I pushed my cart to the next aisle and thought about one of life’s big mysteries: the power of suggestion. All of us are influenced by it every day. The woman saw the spider in my hair and abruptly thought she had one in hers, too.
When I was a school kid, a friend and I got a kick out of standing on a street corner looking up. Passers-by would stop next to us and look up too, a demonstration of how quickly the power of suggestion can influence us.
This same power is what’s behind every print ad, TV commercial, and computer pop-up. If advertisers suggest a certain product can solve my problem, or if it seems I’m the only one who doesn’t have this-or-that, I’ll probably bite.
The power of suggestion is also what’s behind every temptation that comes to us from the devil. He’s a pro at using suggestive powers to custom-make temptations for different people, hoping we won’t use our God-given power to fight back.
We’ve learned to resist the ploys of the advertising world, and we don’t buy everything we see. So we can learn to resist the devil, too. All it takes is practice appropriating the resistance-power God offers. The more we resist, though, the easier it gets.
“Humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” (James 4:7)
I’m so glad you got that daddy long legs out of your hair! Your message was spot on. I now am imagining my own spider in my hair.
I wish I could have seen that! If I’d been with you, I’d have been freaking out too!
I would have hit high notes that I haven’t been able to for a long time!
I was looking up images of “store aisles” and the image I found directed me to this page. After reading your story, I just wanted to say I enjoyed reading it, as it was well-written and spot on; like I was actually seeing this happen! However, I did get a bit sad about the innocent granddaddy long legs passing away. 🙁 Unfortunately, we are all followers, and as much as I don’t like thinking that way; I’ve accepted it. Have a good day!