“The Spider’s Web”

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Though spiders are marvels of God’s design, that probably isn’t your first thought when you suddenly notice a spider dangling from the ceiling only a few inches from your face.

Spiders tend to give you a creepy crawly feeling, but spiders also have special intelligence and unique engineering skills, and the silken fiber which the spider dangles from is one of the most remarkable materials in the natural world and scientists are trying to duplicate the spider silk properties to benefit human life.

While the thin threads of a spider’s web may seem fragile and flimsy, they are quite the opposite. Spider silk is the toughest fiber scientists have found in nature – lighter than cotton, yet stronger that steel.

Spider silk has an impressive array of uses for humans, but such webs are not easily manufactured and is expensive and produces only small quantities – not nearly the levels of production needed to power wind turbines or tailor mass – produced clothing.

So, the potential is huge, and researchers continue to pursue the “wonder material” and the medical industry, in particular, is intrigued by the fact that spider silk does not provoke an immune or allergic response in humans. The prospect of regenerating ligaments and creating better skin grafts for burn victims have doctors intrigued about spider silk.

But for all our best human efforts, we still cannot produce in mass quantities what a single spider generates effortlessly on a daily basis. The spider occupying a quiet corner of your home, is in a real sense, a material engineer beyond compare.

So, the next time a spider startles you, and after you’ve had a moment to catch your breath, you might step back and appreciate what that spider represents – a testament to God our creator, who gives to even the smallest of his creation, abilities mankind cannot yet achieve, asking us in Swainsboro and Emanuel County and extending worldwide and beyond, to examine the works of our creator’s hands, and to see his greatness, ingenuity, goodness, and providence. For his eyes are not only on the sparrow, but also on the spider’s web.