THE ANT!

Ant photo by Peter F. Wolf on Unsplash.

Did you ever follow an ant?  These little buggers travel far and wide in search of food!  They store the food during the spring and summer so that their colony ‘family’ will have enough to survive the winter months.  They live together in harmony, each little ant doing what it is created to do.

King Solomon, the wisest man in the bible wrote in Proverbs 6:6, ‘Take a lesson from the ants.  Learn from their ways and become wise!’  The ants are ‘CRYING OUT!’   Study them and listen to what they are saying!                                                                            

They are very social creatures.  They live together in one big nest.  The largest nest ever found is in Argentina.  It is (believe it or not), over 3,700 miles wide with billions of workers.  National Geographic Kids.  They’ve been in existence since the dinosaurs roamed the earth 130 million years ago.  There are a lot of them around, approximately 1 million for every human in the world.  They are the longest living insects.  The queen ant can live up to 30 years!  Their longevity is due in part because they help each other.  Each ant doing what it is ‘called’ to do.  The queen lays eggs.  The worker ants tend to her every need.  They offer ant daycare, feeding and caring for her larvae, foraging for food and supplies, taking out the trash and building the nest.  Soldier ants protect the nest.  

Those ants that forage for food have two stomachs!!!  One is for their own food, the other is to hold food to share with other ants who stay behind to tend to the nest and queen.

Did you know that ants were the world’s first farmers?  They ‘farm’ aphids for their honeydew, a sugar-laden fluid excreted by aphids who feed on the sap of plants.  The ants offer the aphids protection from predators and in exchange, the aphids offer themselves to be milked for honeydew!  Click on the link below entitled, ‘Crazy Ant Farmers’ to see them in action!  Ants are very strong.  They can carry 10 – 50 times their own body weight.  However, if they need to lift and move something heavier, other ants join in to help. 

What do you hear the ants saying?  Ants know what they are created to do and do it for the benefit of the colony.  Learn what you were created to do so you can be a benefit to your family, the body of Christ and even your Nation.  You can find out by listening to your parents and teachers.  Learn from them.  Take advantage of every opportunity.  Go to college if you can.

And above all, get to know Jesus, the one who made the ant and you!  All things including you were made by Him.  (Colossians 1:16).  He made the ant to be who it is and knows who He made you to be as promised in Jeremiah 29:11. ‘I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord.  They are plans for good and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. ‘ (TLB)

Study the Bible, your ‘owner’s manual’ continually.  ‘Meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it.  Then you will be prosperous and successful.’ (Joshua 1:8).

Ants carry each other’s burdens as we are called to do! ‘Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.’  Galatians 6:2.

They store food and give it to others.  We are called to ‘love our neighbors’ and help meet their needs. ‘And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.’  Hebrews 13:16.  (I wonder if it would be good to do likewise.  When we purchase food for ourselves, we also purchase some for a neighbor or food bank?)

In addition, ants store food and prepare for their future.  No wonder they survived for millions of years.  Proverbs 6:6-11 strongly admonishes us to do the same!  ‘Take a lesson from the ants.  Learn from their ways and become wise!  Though they have no prince or governor or ruler to make them work, they labor hard all summer, gathering food for the winter.  But you, lazybones, how long will you sleep? When will you wake up?  A little extra sleep, a little more slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest— then poverty will pounce on you like a bandit; scarcity will attack you like an armed robber.’ 

 Heed this warning and don’t be lazy.  Go For It!

And you will find the abundant life promised to you by Jesus, the one who made you, who ‘came to give you life and that in abundance!’  John 10:10.  

AND BE A BLESSING TO YOUR FAMILY, FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS!!!

Click on the following amazing video, ‘Crazy Ant Farmers’ by BBC Studios to watch ants ‘farm’ aphids for their honeydew!