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The spider I have brought for the children's sermon is actually a cat toy -- eight bright red pipe cleaner legs, a black "body" of fake fur, and two little plastic eyes. As spiders go, it is very nonthreatening.

Kneeling in front of the assembled children, I plop the spider down on the floor between us and ask, "What is this thing?"

"A spider!" most of them answer.

"What kind of a spider might it be?" I continue.

"A tarantula!" two of the boys assure me. Certainly it is about the size of a tarantula.

"It could be a tarantula," I agree. "But what other kind of spider could it be?"

"A wolf spider," Rebecca suggests.

"A garden spider," says Tommy.

"A black spider," Joe offers.

"Those are all good possibilities," I tell them. "But I'd like to explore the one Joe suggested -- the black spider. Besides the tarantula, do any of you know of any other spiders that are black?" After a moment of silence, it becomes obvious that I have exhausted their repertoire of spider types.

"Have any of you ever heard of a black widow spider?" I question.

"Oh, yeah!" says Joe.

"Well," I continue, "since this is just a toy spider, I can have it be whatever type of spider I want it to be. And I thought of the black widow because I wanted to ask you why it's called a widow. Does anyone know what a widow is?"

Just when I think I've gotten into something too foreign to their experience, Marcia speaks up. "Isn't a widow someone whose husband is dead?"

"Yes, Marcia," I respond with relief. "A widow is someone whose husband has died. And the black widow spider gets her name because she tends to outlive her spider husband."1

"Now, I have another question. Does anyone know what 'only' means?" This draws puzzled looks so I ask, "What if you had only one toy? What would that mean?"

"That I didn't have to share it with anyone else," Richard announces with satisfied certainty.

It is difficult for me not to laugh as I affirm his response, saying, "Yes, it could mean you don't have to share it ..."

"It means I don't have any other toys, if it's my only toy," Jennifer interrupts.

"That's right, Jennifer," I answer. "Now, if this were your only toy, and I took it away from you, how would you feel?"

"Very sad," Jennifer replies.

"I'd be angry," Justin mutters.

"Probably you'd feel both sad and angry," I suggest. "And the reason I brought up these two words, 'widow' and 'only,' was to help us understand today's scripture. It is a story about a widow -- someone whose husband had died. She lived in a town called Nain.

"Now, in the first century, women did not usually have jobs. They had to depend on their husbands and sons to provide money for food, clothing, and shelter. Since this woman was a widow, she had to depend on her only son. That is, she had just one son.

"As the story goes, this widow was in a very bad situation because her only son had just died! Her husband was already dead. And now her only son was dead too. Life must have looked pretty hopeless for her. Even in the midst of her grief for her son, she must have wondered who was going to take care of her now. She must have felt very sad. And she may have felt a bit angry too. It must have seemed like everything that mattered to her was over.

"She was walking along the road outside of Nain, behind her son's body which some men were carrying on a platform. They were going to bury him. But as they were walking to the cemetery, they met Jesus and the disciples coming the other way.

"Jesus immediately understood the situation. And he had such deep compassion for this widow that he told her, 'Do not weep.' Then he went over to the platform on which her son's body lay and said, 'Young man, arise!' And the boy did! And Jesus gave him back to his mother.

"I think there is something very important for us to learn from this story. It is a story about a widow for whom everything seemed lost. Then Jesus came along and gave her son back to her. He gave her son's life back -- and he gave her life back too, because she depended on her son for food, and clothing, and all the basic things we need in life.

"There will be times in all of our lives when it will seem like everything is lost. There will be times when it seems like all hope for our future is gone. When those times come, it will be important to remember this story of the widow of Nain -- to understand that just as Jesus met her on the road and restored her future, Jesus can come into our lives too and give us hope for life where we thought there was none."

Prayer: "God, thank you for the gift of your only son, Jesus, whom you sent to all of us in this world. Help us to understand, as we walk the roads of our lives, that you are there with us, that you send Jesus to meet us, that you restore life to us through your beloved son, in whose name we pray. Amen."

1. This understatement of circumstance brings a roar of laughter from the congregation at large, which I ignore. There are boundaries beyond which one must not tread with children, lest their theology be confused. When I decided to use the spider to get to today's point, I knew I had better not tell them that black widows ate their mates, or they might conclude the widow of Nain had devoured her spouse.