Salutations!

Look who wrote me a squiggle outside my bedroom window!
Miss Writing Spider turned my thoughts to a most loved book from my girlhood.
You remember Charlotte, don't you?
The valiant spider who chose her words carefully and wove them into a web to save a friend's life?
The spider who pondered for just the right message...

Lamb: How about "Pig Supreme"?
Charlotte: No good. It sounds like a rich dessert.
Goose: How about terrific, terrific, terrific?
Charlotte: Cut that down to one terrific and it will do nicely. I think terrific might impress Zuckerman.
Wilbur: But Charlotte, I'm not terrific.
Charlotte:You're terrific as far as I am concerned.

How I love Charlotte.
She and her South Carolina sister make me think of the coming fall. Of a break from the stifling heat and humidity. Of pumpkin patches and cider and spider webs on door frames. Of dew drop beads hanging between two trees in the early morning sunshine.

Charlotte also reminds me of the scripture I read yesterday, a section from Deuteronomy.

Attention, Israel! God, our God! God the one and only!
Love God, your God, with your whole heart: love him with all that's in you, love him with all you've got!
Write these commandments that I've given you today on your hearts. Get them inside of you and then get them inside your children. Talk about them wherever you are, sitting at home or walking in the street; talk about them from the time you get up in the morning to when you fall into bed at night.
Tie them on your hands and foreheads as a reminder; inscribe them on the doorposts of your homes and on your city gates.
Deuteronomy 6: 4-9, The Message

Yes God, I want to do what you ask.
I want to be like Charlotte, writing the most important commandment of all, right on my heart:
God, our God! I love you with all that's in me, I love you with all I've got!
I want to drink those words deep inside of me, feed them to my children. Write them on my forehead, stamp them between my eyes. Inscribe them on my doorposts and gates.
I want to weave the words into a spider web, stretch out my arms, and walk right into it, then spin in it, wrapping the sticky words around me, wrapping me into a silken cocoon of God words. Of love words.

God knows the power of words. Maybe that's part of why he birthed Himself to us in human form, to speak His words straight from a mouth like ours.
People heard Jesus' words and wrote them down, and now we can say them to each other, teach them to our children. Celebrate them and the love breathed into them for the rest of our lives.
For the rest of our lives?
That reminds me of Charlotte's Web too.
See what I mean...

Wilbur: Are you writers?
Charlotte's daughters: No, but we will be when we grow up.
Wilbur:Then write this in your webs, when you learn: This hallowed doorway was once the home of Charlotte. She was brilliant, beautiful, and loyal to the end. Her memory will be treasured forever.
Charlotte's daughters: Ooh, that would take us a lifetime.
Wilbur: A lifetime. That's what we have.

Thank you God, for a lifetime to wrap ourselves in your words of love.
To retell the stories of your undying love for us, even as we made a mess of things. Even as we still do.
When we forget your love for us, when we get consumed by our own culture, when we get low and lose sight of you, help remind us of your presence, of the love letters you have for us. However much life we have left, Lord, help us live it wrapped up in your love.

Okay, here's a goofy challenge. If you had a word or two to write in your web today, what would it be?
I think mine would be...Persistence! Or Heart! Or maybe Coffee!
Or just ignore the challenge and say hello!

Have a wonder-full Monday, y'all!
Love, Becky