Haitian Brown Tarantula

In 2011, I was invited by Double Harvest at Croix des Bouquets, Haiti to hold a week-long Creation seminar for pastors in the area.  But my family was planning a vacation in Gulf Shores, Alabama the following week.  So, on the return trip, I flew into Pensacola, Florida and went straight to Gulf Shores.  The only flight that I could get was early Sunday morning.  In Haiti, there were huge tarantulas and I just had to get one for my grandson, Will, who was nine years old.  I paid two little Haitian boys two packs of crackers, and they got me two big tarantulas.  One I put in an empty Pringles container, and the other, I cut a plastic Sprite bottle in half, put the spider inside, and secured the two halves with three screws.  I put the two spiders in my checked bag.  The customs declaration said, “no insects” but said nothing about arachnids, a technicality.  The tarantulas went through security with no problems.  When I arrived at the condo in Gulf Shores early in the morning, my daughter Beth was the only one up.  I opened my bag and said, “Beth, come and see what I got for Will.”  Unsuspecting Beth came to see.  I took the lid off the Pringles can and looked inside, but there was no spider.  Then I looked at the lid that I held in my hand, and there was the spider!  It jumped to the floor and scurried for a hiding place.  Beth screamed, and I grabbed a broom and dustpan to corral the escapee.  I could just imagine the tarantula hiding under the washer or dryer.  The women would never enter the condo again and our vacation would be ruined.  Fortunately, I captured the tarantula and got it back into the Pringles can.  Later that day, a Google search revealed that there are 900 varieties of tarantulas in the world, and mine, a Haitian brown, was among the top ten most ill-tempered, deadly of them all!  Not a good gift for my grandson.  Hey, some decisions I have made in life are not very good.  But when I trusted Jesus Christ as my Savior, it was the best decision that I ever made!  And every day, I discover a new reason to be glad that I did!  Proverbs 3:26, “For the LORD shall be thy confidence, and shall keep thy foot from being taken.”  Trust Jesus, and you’ll never be sorry that you did.