Animals

Animals

Take a lesson from the ants, you lazybones. Learn from their ways and be wise! Even though they have no prince, governor, or ruler to make them work, they labor hard all summer, gathering food for the winter.

Proverbs 6:6-8

Although ants are small, they are very wise. They almost make us look lazy. They work day and night, they store up food, and they build their mounds three or four times higher (comparatively speaking) than the Egyptian pyramids are to us. When ants are sick, they care for each other, and in the winter they eat what they saved in the summer.

Ants have one of the most elaborate social organizations in the animal world. Thousands of ants live in a communal nest, each one having its own task to perform. These workers gather, make, and store food for both the adults and the larvae.

Living near fields of grain and carrying seed into their private storehouses, the ants described in Proverbs 6 are harvester ants. When cold weather comes, these ants swarm together and hibernate. They have enough food stored up during the winter to last until the next harvest. God gave ants an amazing ability to solve problems and plan ahead. For example, if the grain they stored gets wet, they haul it out to dry in the sun.

These tiny creatures are included in the Bible as examples for us. They are busy, they plan ahead, and they work together. The next time you’re out on a walk with your child and you see an ant, take the opportunity to discuss some of the lessons we can learn from these tiny creatures.

God,

Thank you that we learn important lessons about life from some of your tiniest creatures. Like the ants, help us to be diligent in the work you’ve given us to do. Amen.