Mom Heart Moments #364

Go to the ant, O sluggard, observe 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 YOUNG CHILDREN, my little ones were fascinated with nature. Living on two hundred acres of wilderness in the middle of Texas provided many opportunities to catch and classify butterflies, catch bugs, put snakes into large jars to observe (I found one on the kitchen counter!), and see how God had built lessons of life into His world.

One evening, Nathan and Joel were running ahead as we sauntered on our traditional after-dinner walk. With the summer hours at night, we still had full light. Joel was captivated by a tiny ant carrying a leaf almost five times its size.

“Mama, if a tiny little bug like that can work so hard for his family of ants, maybe we could do a lot more than we think.”

Three days later, we received a shipment of a printing of one of our books. Boxes were stacked high, and it would take quite some work to empty them onto our shelves. Late in the afternoon, however, Clay came out of our little office to find Joel, sweating profusely in the Texas summer heat, busily at work. He had already emptied thirty boxes of books, placing them neatly onto the shelves, and had only two more to go.

“Joel, this is amazing! What made you decide to do this?” we asked.

“Well, when I was thinking about the ant and how he carried so much more than we could ever imagine possible, I thought, I want to be like that ant! I want to be strong and dependable. Today, something came into my head and told me to empty the boxes of books.” (Yes, he really said that when he was nine years old. I think maybe the Holy Spirit came into his head!) We couldn’t have planned this lesson for Joel; it came about as part of our regular routine.

How does nature fit into your day?