Biblical Ants

[AliveInHim]

I walked outside this morning to greet the day. Walking along my sidewalk were hundreds of ants -- all of them working in one another to get food and such back to their home. I was fascinated by this. Perhaps it is just because I'm amazed by the mathematics of it all, but I have to share this with you all. The average worker ant (which is what these little things were) is about 3mm. These little things were walking a distance of 27 feet. Yes, I really did take the time to measure all of this out and do the research. I truly am a nerd.

Now, really for us 27 feet isn't that much. However, if you really stop to look at ratio of it, it's incredible. Did you know this is the same as the average human walking a distance of 31.75 miles. Yes, I really did do the math of all this. 31 miles! Average walking speed is about 3mph. It would take someone over 10 hours straight to walk that distance. Wow! Can you imagine walking 10 hours? Now, this may not add up to much, but go look at a bunch of ants. Did you know they all walk in a straight line to a specific point and then back to their home? They make this trip over and over and over in order to get their food back. However, here is the catch. It isn't just one ant. It is hundreds of them in this line. One passes off something to another and to another and to another and to another. One ant isn't walking the whole distance. One ant may walk only a small bit of the sidewalk -- only 1 foot or even if it was that much. Then, back to its spot to get something else from another ant and back to point B to pass it off to another one. Constantly new ants are moving in to replace the ones that have worked longer. Each one of them has a purpose. Each one of them has a special role to play.

Why aren't we more like ants sometimes? It is what God intended for us to be really if you think about it. Look for a moment at scripture.

1 Corinthians 12:12-14, "For just as the body is ONE and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the Spirit we were all baptized into one body--Jews or Greek, slaves or free--and we were all made to drink of ONE spirit. Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of MANY."

We are just like all those little ants. We all have our purposes. We all have a calling, an anointing upon our life. But, here is the catch. We don't have to walk that 31 mile trek alone. We only have to walk a little bit and then let someone else down their part and then let someone else to theirs and so on. Don't try to trek a part of the journey God didn't call you to do.

1 Corinthians 12:29-30

"Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret?"

We all have our parts and God never expects us to do something we were NEVER called to do. Remember that when Satan pokes at us and say, "Hey, hey, Christian. You didn't finish the job." We can say, "Yes, I know. That is for someone else to do. My part was to get from there to here. I did that. God called another person to take up the journey from here." We can say this with confidence, my friends.

Now, I know God works in funny ways, but this one is one of the strangest. I have a tendency to flip channels and go off and do something else and forget what I was searching for on TV in the first place. The TV is the noise in the background right now. Just as I was typing about the scripture about being one body, the preacher on the TV yelled out his scripture for the day and his main point.

"We are connected! We are the Body of Christ! Look back at the verse! There is but ONE body and ONE spirit just as you were CALLEd to the ONE hope of your calling, ONE Lord, ONE faith, ONE baptism, ONE God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all. Ephesians 4:4-6"

Indeed, God works in funny ways. Apparently, he even uses my background noise to speak to me. And, yes, he even uses ants and my strange mathematical obsessions.

Amanda