Chickens, Dogs, and Spiders

Emperor Charles V was trying to assassinate John Brenz, friend of Martin Luther. Hearing of the plot, Brenz barely had time to grab a loaf of bread and duck into his neighbor’s hayloft. There he hid fourteen days. The bread was quickly gone, but the Lord sent a hen who showed up and laid an egg each day for fourteen days.

In this way, Brenz was kept alive. On the fifteenth day the chicken didn’t come, and the reformer wondered what he would do. But from the street below came the cries, “The cavalrymen are gone at last.”

In a similar way, a dog provided for the needs of another reformer, John Craig, who was arrested during the Inquisition. On the eve of his scheduled execution, Craig escaped, but while fleeing through the Italian backcountry, he ran out of food and money.

Suddenly a dog approached him, a purse in its mouth. Craig tried to drive the animal away, but it dog persisted in bringing the purse to Craig.

In it was enough money to take him to freedom. Similarly, Robert Bruce of Scotland was running for his life, fleeing persecutors. He ducked into a small cave, and a spider immediately appeared and spun a web over the opening. Bruce’s pursuers fanned across the landscape, knowing he was near.

Two of them approached the cave, and one of the men started to go in. The other one stopped him, saying, “He could never have gotten in there without breaking that spider’s web.”

Bruce breathed this prayer, “O God, I thank Thee that in the tiny bowels of a spider you can place for me a shelter.”