Norad Santa Tracking

The Little Spider who Saved Jesus

This is a story about a little baby spider who saved Jesus' life.

King Herod was very much afraid of the baby Messiah. He had been visited by Wise Men and Kings from foreign lands. All traveled to pay tribute to the newborn baby who is destined to bring a new kingdom to the World. He had become fearful of losing power, especially to a baby, and placed orders for all children two years and younger to be killed. Sometimes even the parents were killed trying to protect their children. Jesus' parents, as well as other who had heard the news, fled to Egypt for safety. They traveled mostly during the night so they would not see them. But the vast Roman army was quickly catching up to guard the borders.

It was much quicker to cross the open plains but very difficult to go over the rugged mountain terrain, especially when you are carrying a newborn baby. Guided by Angels, they started their journey over the mountain tops. From their viewpoint at night time, they could see the campfires of the approaching Romans soldiers and at times they were able to hear their voices. Mary was very fatigued and needed some rest. After all, she had just recently given birth and had very little time to recover before fleeing for their safety.

As they traveled over one of the mountain tops, they came across a series of caves. Joseph, lighting a torch, looked into the caves to see which one was better suited to hide in. Mary was already sleeping on the ground when Joseph returned. Jesus as well was calmly sleeping in Mary's arms. Joseph carried them as quickly as he could to the back of one of these caves. Before leaving, Joseph being a carpenter and therefore skilled with his hands, had made a sword. While Mary and Jesus hid, Joseph kept guard just in case the soldiers entered the cave.

They were so far in the cave that they could not see the opening any more. This was Joseph's strategy. For what soldier would want to search a deep, dark cave with the chance of meeting a wild animal in one of them. By nightfall, the Roman army was already at the bottom of the mountain terrain where Joseph and his family were hiding. The solders were preparing their evening meals, sharpening their weapons and sharing war stories. By morning they would surely be searching the caves.

The cave Joseph and his family were hiding in did not have a wild animal in it, but it did have another inhabitant: a little baby spider. This spider was awakened when Joseph carried his family into the cave. He was curious as to why anybody would want to enter a cave. So when Joseph came out of the cave to check on the soldiers, the little spider climbed onto Joseph and journeyed with him to the mountain's edge. There they saw and heard the soldiers.

With tears in his eyes, Joseph quietly prayed to God.

“Father of Abraham, I was guided by a dream to be with Mary; I was guided by you to protect her and the baby. I see only death within reach of me and those I love. I see nothing beyond the next day but those who have already passed away. To quietly leave now, unseen by the Romans and those you blessed me with would be a fate worse than death itself. I may never fully understand but I do know that I would rather die living than to live dead. And I chose to follow my heart and stand ready to do what my mind says otherwise. I am scared but I will protect them with my life. You do not have to worry about me.”

The little spider hearing Joseph's prayer and was deeply moved. He did not know anything about the baby Messiah, but his heart was moved by the love and sacrifice of a father. When Joseph returned to the cave to check on his family, the little spider jumped off of him. The little spider wanted to help but what could a spider do; especially a baby spider? So he thought for a moment, and immediately had an idea.

The spider crawled to the cave's opening and began to make a spider's web, but not any ordinary spider's web. This would be his first spider's web and he wanted it to be the biggest and best of any kind. After all, he wanted to help the family whom he had heard Joseph praying about. And so, during the long cold night, this little baby spider kept weaving his beautiful web. Never once did he take a rest or slow down. Running along strands of web and swinging through the air, this spider was focusing everything he had on completing his first spider's web.

As the sun was coming up over the horizon, the Roman soldiers were preparing their journey up the mountainside. Joseph was deep in the cave never to have gone to sleep. The baby spider was very slow compared to the much older and experienced spiders, but he kept working as fast as he could while the soldiers came closer and closer. As the soldiers approached the opening of the cave where Joseph's family was in, they stopped.    

There before them was a wall of web. A web pattern the like none have never seen before. The morning dew was already covering the web, and as the morning light was hitting the web, an array of incredibly beautiful colors was reflecting off of it. It looked as if a rainbow were covering the cave's entrance. And to add more beauty to it, as the solders moved around they could see the changing colors of the web. A combination of morning dew and light has blinded them. It was as if they were looking upon the door to Heaven.

The army commander, as well as the others, was so impressed with the beauty of the web that they stared at it for what appeared to be for eternity. Not just the colors shining off of it but the patterns within patterns. Soldiers were seeing all sorts of shapes and symbols; artwork like no one has ever created before. No one wished to damage it and excuses were being made to protect it.

The commanding officer reasoned that it would have taken many days to weave such a magnificent web and if anyone had entered the cave would have surely damaged the web. He gave orders to protect the spiders’ web. Joseph being at the back of the cave and hearing every word the soldiers were saying was curious about the spider's web which he surely would have seen when he entered the cave. By evening, when the army had moved onward towards the other mountains terrains, Joseph awoke Mary and they made their way to the caves entrance.

There they saw the same rainbow effect from the evening sunset which the Roman soldiers had seen from the morning sunrise. During the whole day not once did Jesus cry or make trouble in endanger his parents' as well as his own life. Mary awoke Jesus so he could see the beautiful web. He saw the different colors and began laughing with great joy. After the sun had set, Joseph used his sword to cut an opening to continue their journey to Egypt.

Leaving the cave, Jesus began smiling and waving towards an area of the cave. Mary was curiously looking around to see what he was looking at but saw nothing. Jesus was waving directly towards the little spider that had saved him and his family from certain death. Making their way through the terrain and safely entered Egypt, avoiding the armies that King Herod had sent out with orders to kill the King of the Jews, they stayed until it was safe to return home.

The little spider was honored to have saved their life. Taught by a prayer, the little spider learned to help others to best way he could. From the sacrifice of the whole night's rest, the whole world was able to come much closer to understanding this. Creating a thing of beauty that has inspired the world with a love for others to be a part of.

Making the News Again

I check the website again and sure enough another photo of both boys made it to the stations slideshow.

Making the News

With the boys out of school due to the weather I took some pictures while sending a few of them to WRAL- TV. They placed one of those pictures of my youngest son on their website.

My Last Bully Attack

The following story is true. Most of the information is from my own personnel experiences plus testimonies from others who helped to complete the story of the last bullying attack against me. I do not recommend doing what I did but I admit in enjoying it greatly.

It was the last day of school for the school year of 1985. Everyone including myself was looking forward to summer fun and returning to school as seniors. I was looking forward to working again on my Uncles farm. Hard work, long hours and money to buy next school years supplies, clothing, music, comics and junk food. But on this day, everyone is more than happy and waiting for that last bell to ring. But as everyone is talking away about plans of beach and mountain trips, one boy was constantly making very rude comments towards me. This guy over the entire school year had been verbally attacking me as I did my best to avoid him. But it wasn’t as easy as there were a few other bullies I had to deal with. All the while as school officials did their best to protect their own image.

On this day he was going a little too far as the teacher and a few other students were trying to get him to stop but to no results. I remember him sitting on a table using my book bag as a foot rest. As he said made a rude comment again towards me I remember taking my book bag off the table as he continued his commentary. At this point I grabbed the table and flipped it over causing him to tumble onto the floor as well. As he gathered his composer, he pretty much lunged at me but to no avail on what he wanted to do to me.

I grabbed me flipping him around onto the floor and proceeded to grip my hands around his neck as I squeezed with every bit of strength I had. He pretty much stopped hitting me as he tried to unlock the grip I had on him. By this point things started to get a bit unclear as to what was happening. I started to get tunnel vision to the point of going totally blind. I was just staring blindly forward all the while sporting a huge smile. They say when a man goes crazy he ‘snaps’. It was more like a static crinkling effect for me.

It wasn’t until later I was told what it took to keep me from killing this guy. As I had my hands around his neck, I also had my knee wedged into his chest area keeping him from getting away from me. As the teacher and other students were grabbing my arms as well as my waist and anything they could grab to get me off this guy wasn’t working at all. As they pulled me off of him, my hands pulled him with me. They stated that I had the biggest smile they had ever seen to the point it was creeping out everyone as it appeared that I was truly enjoying what I was doing to this bully.

Luckily for him they were able to remove my hands from his neck and at this point my vision returned as well as the color on the guys face as he began to breathe again. When he was able to stand on his own, the teacher proceeded to take us to the office but she made sure a few of the other students went with us as protecting for the bully. I kind of lunged towards the guy when he got off the floor. We sat separately in the vice principal’s office as the teacher explained everything that had happened and basically stood up for me explaining all the crap I had to put up with this bully all year. Moments later I was allowed to leave to get my backpack and head home as the bell was ringing. The other guy stayed a while longer explaining his actions all year that led up to me nearly killing him.

I continued on through the summer working in 90 to 100 degree weather working on my Uncles farm enjoying as I do every year of operating heavy equipment, working before the sun rises and going to bed long after the sun has settled to sleep. Upon returning to school everything was starting out great. But in one my classes that same bully, I nearly killed, was there as well. As he was once again start up his verbal abuse again towards me again, he was interrupted by others who tried to stop him by reminding him what happened on that last day of school. Many other students wanted to know the whole story and of course it was retold in great detail. As this bully played it down by making up excuses for his defeat, he forever avoided me when I made a statement that really put a scare into everyone in the room, including the teacher.

For many classmates had been calling me ‘Lurch’ from the TV show ’Adams Family’ due to my deep voice so without looking at anyone in particular I simply stated, “I really enjoyed watching you die.”

Fun in the Snow

As expected the boys will not be going to school today due to the weather conditions. That being snow turning over to freezing rain to just plain rain by this afternoon. With that my wife is still in bed refusing to move an inch as the rest of us headed outside to pummel each other in a combination of snowballs and ice balls. We would have stayed out longer but seeing how as we were starting to gather a nice ice coating all over us, we decided to spend the rest of the day hunkered down in the living room watching cartoon and eating junk food. It’s been a great day.

Dinner with the Sharks

My wife and I recently went to the Crabtree Valley Mall in Raleigh to listen to a Christmas Choir as we enjoyed our lunch as well as to do some shopping of sorts. By one of the mall entrances was a display of a Megalodon shark. Needless to say she took lots of pictures.

Dragonball Z Wanna-be

My two boys recently discovered a cartoon show that I was watching when I was in high school. Over the years I was able to collect the VHS tapes of all the shows and movies only to later begin acquiring the DVD sets. But after surviving the live action fiasco I still remain a fan of the animated show. So when the new series called Dragon Ball Z Kai started, I was more than ready to not only watch this show on TV but to get my kids connected to the show.

At first they weren’t interested at all. More precisely they would leave the room the moment the show came on. But it wasn’t until Vegeta turned into the giant ape that my youngest one started watching it. Bit by bit he would watch, getting to the point he would start You Tube surfing the show to the point he proclaimed himself a fan of the show. But his older brother was still not interested. That is until he started seeing the video’s of the Super Saiyans fighting Cell. Then at that point my oldest son became a huge fan of the show.

Luckily I had a the original series on DVD so they could watch the shows again but this led to a great deal of confusion for the series they are watching on TV is the Dragonball Z Kai version. So it took quite a while to explain the absence of a lot of characters in the Kai version. But overall they’re still huge fans with a great deal of inspiration to learn Karate. Although they are a bit disappointed that they will not be able to fly and shot beams of energy from their hands. For that matter, the ability to turn their hair all glowing yellow. 

Doctor Who Christmas

Moses - Pillar of Fire and Smoke

As Moses led all the Israelites out of Egypt, he was faces constantly with mutiny all around him. Many of these people still wanted to live as slaves under Egyptian rule. They were provided a home, food and protection from other nations that may have attacked Egypt from time to time. But being told that they are the chosen people who had to roam the desert, searching for food everyday while fighting off different nation’s armies all the while as they lived as Nomads was too much for a great deal many of the Israelites.

Given the life expectancy of people living in this time period it is safe to assume that all those who left Egypt had died before their 40 year Nomadic life had ended. And those who entered the promised land where those who were born in the desert with no memory of living as slaves but instead lived with knowing a better life was ahead of them; a  permanent home to call their very own. But during this nomadic life many people plotted to kill Moses and his family in order to return to a slave’s life.

It is recorded that there were over 600,000 fighting men. As with the customs of that time a boy became a man at age 14 and to be called a man also meant that one had to have a wife as well. Added to the fact that having large families were extremely common at this time. The population could have number from two to three million Israelites by the time they entered Judea. With so many people to feed everyday required a lot of planning and an army of people working constantly to provide the basic necessities everyday. 

  

The Israelites did not walk around the desert everyday. They rested from days to weeks at a time. And this is where the miracle of the pillars of fire and smoke applied itself to not only guide the Israelites but to separate the enemies of Moses from one another. When it looked like there was to be a revolt of any type Moses would make preparations to have all the people to break camp and continue their journey through the desert. And this tactic kept his most powerful enemies separated as well as focused more on the needed on the present survival of the Israelites.

Moses would send at least 250,000 people on at least a two to three days trip while the rest of the Israelites stayed at their present campsite. These people would journey ahead in search of a camp site for all the other Israelites. They would set up the area, gather food as well as other materials for the rest of the two to three million Israelites that were only a few days journey away.  So how did Moses find this advance team in the middle of the desert? By the fires the advance team kept burning. Fires at night not just for warmth but for protection from wild animal attacks as to cooking the food, making weapons, washing clothing as examples for during the day.

There was no GPS signal, cell phones or any electronics of any type; the only guide Moses had to follow was the smoke coming from the fires by day and seeing the light of the fires at night. Seeing as I live miles away from the nearest city and at nighttime I can easily find the city by its light shining up the nighttime sky. But there was a little more to Moses plan to quiet the rumors of rebellion against him.

When the Israelites moved to a new campsite, Moses left behind roughly 250,000 people to clean up the area of any remnants of their stay. Later they would rejoin the rest of the Israelites upon completing their task. This was a multi plan that Moses used to not only keep his enemies separated from planning their rebellion but to keep wild animals from following and attacking them as well as to not upset different countries and bring the wraith of the many nations that the Israelites were traveling through.

   

While the Israelites moved, Moses enemies were powerless and the nations they traveled through were happy that they were leaving. Until the day when all those born in Egypt had died and the children of the desert could appreciate entering the land flowing with milk and honey instead of living off on manna and quail.

Living Gets Better

For a while now I have been participating in a class reunion of sorts. Running into people that I went to Elementary and High School and finding out many interesting things. Some of which I already knew. A quick back story is that I wasn’t the most popular guy in school. More precisely is that I was bullied a lot all throughout my school life with the exception of 12 grade. But that’s due to the fact I almost killed a bully on the last day of school in the 11^th grade. But that’s another story.

 But getting back to the main point here is that I learned that most of the people I went to school with are dead now. Mostly involving the predictable reasons with that being drugs, alcohol. I saw one old bully from high school at a gas station. He looked like he needed a bath, glazed eyes, and couldn’t finish a sentence until he remembered what he was talking about all the while referencing his time in jail. He was the poster boy of drug use. Many of my former bullies that are still alive are living this way. One of them has a very difficult time staying married while decorating his entire body in tattoos.

The other day I had to go to school for my son. I met up with a woman I was in elementary school with who kept apologizing for all the treatment I went through school. I have to admit that I don’t remember everything that happened to me in school but that’s mostly due to me having to mentally block out a lot of ‘stuff’ I went through.  The bad part of it is that I couldn’t block out the rest of it. But over the past few days I was able to see and hear many events that has happened to so many people I went to school with. Many of my former class mates turned out OK; hard working people with a decent family life.

I will never go to class reunions or hang out with anyone I went to school with. There are a couple of them I see from time to time which is great but with so many other people that treated me like bug crap can know that I didn’t commit suicide, become an alcohol and drug user, go on a mass killings spree of old enemies or live in misery and grief all these years. It’s not that I didn’t care how I was treated or was inspired by one of those ‘love thy fellow man’ speeches taught in church every Sunday. I just didn’t see any of them being involved in my life after graduation.

So I grin and bared it all those years in school, living for the day that I will enjoy a better life than my teenage life. And I have done that. I traveled to different countries as well as across America. I lived a wonderful life and have been blessed with a great family. School only gave me a document to get a job. From their I met a better class of people.