I spent and hour watching ants Saturday night. Actually, that wasn't the main focus of my time...we were talking to "Sly." He befriended our group last Tuesday, I think, and has been around a few times since then. He's had marital problems and is now (from what he says) living in a van a few blocks away. He is always so glad to run into us, especially his "buddies" (the guys in our group) and, while he has been intoxicated each time we've met, it is amazing to know that God is working in his life.
So back to these ants...while we were talking with Sly I noticed a group of ants on the porch trying their hardest to deal with a piece of a potato chip. I thought, as I watched those ants, what a great model that is for fellowship, for the Christian body, especially for the situation we are in with Sly. (I was thinking about a lot more but there is such a thing as too personal to blog...)
Anyway, back to the analogy. Now I know it is probably elementary and I know that the comparison has to have been made again and again...but bear with me.
When I started watching the ants there was one ant tugging at the chip. He would pull for a while, stop to check things out, and then get back to work. He really wasn't making much progress. But then another ant came over, and another, and soon enough there were quite a few working to get the chip into the hole. They got it there in no time.
Great, so working together, supporting each other we can bear our burdens more easily. We can pull through when it seems hopeless. We can encourage each other to accomplish that which is set before them.
That's not where the ants stopped, though. The next problem was getting it into the hole. The chip was far too big to fit. The only way to move on was to break the chip into smaller pieces and deal with one bit at a time.
Things seem so overwhelming to us that we feel there is nothing more to be done. What we need to do is break the problem into more manageable chunks.
Right, so that's the ants. It's simple, and maybe even pointless, but I love the way things work in God's kingdom. I love that so many things are mirrored in the world around us.
Like how trees reaffirm my faith. When you look at something so massive as an oak, especially when you know how it works, what it takes for that tree to survive even a day, you know it is too perfect to happen by chance.
Wait, tangent, sorry. I know it's simple, I know it's childish but when you've been working with 7 year-olds for a week, simple = good.
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