Lessons From the Little Creatures

As I was hiking through the woods one day looking for mushrooms, I saw a big mound of dirt. I slowly moved to the pile not knowing what it was. As I got nearer, I saw to my astonishment, ants going in and out of the mound! That mass of dirt was their dwelling place.

I stood there looking over the hill. I watched the ants disappear inside of it and return carrying a little bit of dirt, stick or leaf. As I stood there watching the ants work, I thought about how that big heap of dirt was carried out of the ground crumble by crumble, one at a time by each ant.

While settled there watching the ants work, I thought about how the Bible talks about them in Proverbs 30: 24. It says, “the ant is not a strong people. But they prepare their food in the summer;” I watched an ant drag a leaf away from the entrance of the nest. The leaf was twice its size! The ant was having a little trouble carrying it, but that did not stop the little insect. It drove on till the job was completed.

Then looking down, I saw an ant dragging something. I bent over to get a closer look and saw that it was a seed. I watched it lug the seed to the nest and disappear into the hole. Then I saw another ant carrying a little spider into the nest, too. They were preparing their food in the summer. While watching the ants deliver their food, I thought how no one was making them gather rations. Neither were there any ants standing around doing nothing. That reminded me of what it says in Proverbs 6:6-8. “Go to the ant O sluggard, see her ways and be wise, which having no chief officer or ruler prepares her food in the summer and gathers her provision in the harvest.”

As I stood observing the ants, I thought about how amazing they were, and how I picked up a few lessons from those fantastic little creatures. I had an incredibly entertaining time watching them.

Getting a little hungry, I looked at my watch and it was five minutes till one. Seeing that it was dinner time, I parted with my new little friends, and set out toward the house. I already had a plan to come back and maybe learn a little more about these marvelous ants.

~Jonah