Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”  This is my daily prayer, and with this new year upon us, I have been thinking as I have had some reflection and planning time.  I also had something happen that you have to hear about!

Christmas Eve I went to take a sip from my Contigo water bottle and felt a very sharp sting on my tongue.  I spit out the water that was in my mouth and the stinging continued.  I grabbed the spider off of my tongue and threw it on the floor.  My brain kind of went through all kinds of scenarios.  Is this a poisonous spider?  In MN I know all the poisonous spiders, in Nigeria I don’t yet!  What do you do when a spider bites your tongue?  The internet had no help for that, apparently it doesn’t happen very often.  I swished Listerine around my mouth for a couple of minutes and put Tea Tree Oil on the bite and took a Benadryl.  My tongue continued to hurt.  I thought what should I do next?  I should probably tell Dan in case I die or something (sometimes I am dramatic).  I did, and he said, “What kind of spider is it, is it poisonous?”  He picked up the spider from the floor where I threw it and I started googling Nigerian spiders.  It turns out it was a yellow sac spider that likes to crawl into dark spaces (the tube of my water bottle) during the day and wander around at night looking for food.  The poison aspect of the spider ranged from very poisonous to annoying, but not poisonous.  I decided to believe the annoying but not poisonous information.  My tongue still has a little sore spot from the bite but no other ill effects, so I am thankful, so thankful for that!

After this incident, Dan and I were laughing because we do not know ANYONE else who has been bit on the tongue by a spider.  We also do not know anyone who is quite as inclined to strange and weird instances of extreme disaster as I am.  No one who has been shot in Nigeria on their first visit, no one who has fallen off of a zip line and lost their sense of smell and taste, no one who falls frequently and slips on nothing, no one (except our son Robert) who can fall up or down stairs every single time, and now no one who has been bit on the tongue by a spider.

If you don’t know me well, now you know a little bit more about me.  I’m kind of like an accident waiting to happen somedays.  BUT guess what?

I have a God who knows this, who made me JUST like this and loves me and wants me to serve Him.  Isn’t it amazing, friend!  All our God wants is us.  I am finally at a place in this life where He gets all of me.  I am not sure why He wants it, but I am here, and here to serve Him.  Don’t get me wrong, I am human and somedays just want to go to bed and never get up, or be selfish and scream, “I want my own way NOW”.  But God is helping me daily as I pray to be more like Jesus and that people will see Jesus not only in me, but through me as well.

My point for today is this:  If you are waiting to be “Perfect” before you give yourself to Jesus, He doesn’t want perfect, He wants YOU!  How much of you does He have?