Ark Valley News - Hope and hilarity

Hope and hilarity
By Chuck Terrill
Last Updated: August 13, 2015

We can learn from the ants

I had to move a pile of firewood. I was tired of weed-eating around it. The wood had been where it was for a long time, the result of cracking trees in a winter ice storm. The elm on top was hard and firm. As I neared the bottom of the pile, the wood was squishy. It was wet and moldy. The weight of the logs on top had pressed the logs into the dirt.

I yanked a piece of firewood free from the ground and uncovered a large ant pile. You have seen a similar sight. Maybe a million ants and maybe a million little, rice white, oval ant eggs. I threw the log I had just unearthed away quickly, because it was squirming with ants.

The ants on the ground were in chaos. Their well-ordered world had suddenly become undone. All they had ever known had quickly ended. For them, nothing would ever be the same.

I brushed the ants off my hand and stepped back to watch. Frenzied ants were scattering in every direction, seeking a place of safety. Something amazing happened. Before they left what had been their home, each ant grabbed one of the eggs. It would be hard to run and hide when you are carrying an egg that is nearly as large as you are. Even so, panicked as they were, every ant seemed to be doing all that they could do to save those eggs.

They had no idea where they were going, each carrying an egg. They had no idea what tomorrow might bring. They were slowed down in their escape. The ants' concern, it seemed, was for others, and not for themselves. In fear for their own lives and safety, they saved every egg that they could save.

It was a good lesson. The ants couldn't save them all, but each one saved one. They saved all those that they could save.

In this world of increasing tribulation, we might be tempted to say, "Well, we can't save them all," and give up. While we may not be able to save them all, we can save some. Every life is important. Every soul is important.

The ants didn't focus on what they couldn't do. They focused on what they could do. Then, they did it.

May it be the same with us.

"Consider the ways of the ant and be wise" (Proverbs 6:6).

Chuck Terrill is pastor of Valley Center Christian Church. He can be reached at chuck@valleycenterchristianchurch.org or 755-1233.