Spiders and Prayers, Oh My!

Spiders and Prayers, Oh MY

There is an old story of a man fighting an intense battle in a war long ago. He had been fleeing from the enemy and stumbled upon a series of small caves. He chose one and tucked himself deep inside as humanly possible. He could hear the enemy coming in his direction so he prayed in earnest for protection and safety.
It was then that he noticed a spider had begun to spin her web in the front of the cave. He was scared to death but still laughed inside himself. “God, what I need here is a brick wall, not some spider’s wed for protection” He then heard the voices and the footsteps of his enemy approaching. They were checking each cave individually “No one in here” he heard as the voice came closer. He prepared himself for capture.
As strange and wonderful thing had happened. They barely looked over at his cave because after all there was a huge spider web across the entrance, no one had gone in there for a long time his enemies thought. The enemy went on his way and the man was saved.
How often have I prayed for a brick wall to protect me only to be offered a “spider web” and did not notice that my prayers had been answered.
Recently, scientific reports come out asserting that distant prayer for other does not work. In fact, some of the reports suggested that it might even be harmful. Dr. Herbert Benson and his colleagues conducted these studies on a group of cardiac patients in Harvard Medical School. It seems that one treatment group that didn’t know they were being prayed for actually had negative results.
In Unity we don’t need a study that distant prayer works. Then the journal OF REPRODUCTIVE MEDICINE purported that women who were prayed for had a 50 percent pregnancy rate compared to 26 percent rate for those who were not.
Anyone who has spent time in prayer and praying for others might ask, “How could an answered prayer be scientifically measured?”
Could science recognize a spider’s web as answered prayer? How many of those cardiac patients being studied had a deeper healing, that could not be studied or measured? Were families brought back together that had been torn apart? Would that have been considered in the failed testing?
Is releasing long standing resentments, anger, and betrayal measured when a person might be facing death? Did the husband or wife see the beloved anew? Did it at least one draw closer to the God of their understanding or have a spiritual awakening? How are these thing measured scientifically? Can a healing occur and the patient still be ill or even die? Prayer is holistic, mysterious, and filled with grace. Would we ever really want to measure such things?
As I look back through my life, I see the myriad of times prayers were answered with the spider’s web instead of the brick wall. My job is to notice the spider’s web as answered prayer with faith, giving thanks all will be revealed.