Insect Insights

Introduction

When was the last time you laid in the grass and just watched bugs?

Doesn’t happen today, does it? Instead, we are busy with screens, consumed by social media, and fiddling with phones.

But don’t you remember when you were a child and summers was picking through emerald lawns looking at rolly-pollies, listening to the sound of cecadas, and watching the flitting of a hummingbird on a hollyhock?

Perhaps we need more observation of the world. That is how previous generations learned about life, not from school books or teachers but from the greatest teacher, the creator who led you into his workshop to show you the tiny wonders of life.

When we see the world and how it works, we witness how God set the pattern for all life, including our own.

It was something Solomon knew because wisdom is acquired, not assumed. He directs us back to that green grass to get insights from insects, specifically, the ant.

Discussion

Illustration

About 500 years before Christ a blind beggar walked the dusty streets of Galatia. We know him because of his storytelling talent. In told, he told about 750 fables. Aesop is his name and his fables used talking animals to make moral points. It says something about Galatian intelligence.

One of his stories was one of a grasshopper who wasted time dancing with friends. Time wiled away with the hop of tomorrow. He chided the ant who worked feverishly. “Take it easy. Have some fun.” But the ant refused.

When winter came, the ant had a storehouse of food while the jovial grasshopper shivered.

For Aesop, the lesson was simple. Work today, eat tomorrow.

About 400 years before, another man saw the same thing, but this one was not telling tales but teaching lessons. His name was Solomon.

Solomon spoke about 900 proverbs designed to train his son and all who would rule both a nation and their lives. One of them was similar but preceded Aesop. It is found in Proverbs 6.

“Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise. Without having any chief, officer, or ruler, she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest. How long will you lie there, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man.” (Proverbs 6:6–11, ESV)

He noticed something about the frantic ant. It would travel distances relative to is size which were unfathomable. Each had a morsel of food headed for the ant hill. Each crumb ensured his future survival.

Solomon watched more than ants. He watched men and hoped they could see themselves in the ant and his labor. He knew of the sluggards, who were always preparing to get ready to do something sometime. They seemed to be tired so they would nap and “get to it later.”

And he watched the sluggards who believed time was on their side go to through the streets in rags. For unlike the ant, they had not mad ready.

Principle

But Solomon does not build a mental ant farm to entertain children. Instead, he is serious about life. In the ant, he saw the great principles of life and the danger we all bear.

We have a curious relationship with tomorrow. We believe it will be there when we need it or want it. We have plenty of time for doing what we must one day but we do what we want today.

Jesus knew that. He saw a man who mirrors the modern. He trusts that tomorrow will be available.

In Luke 12, he tells the story of a rich man. He apparently is either diligent or lucky for he has great agricultural success. Large silos replace small vats to store the excess of his life. And yet, we get them impression that he doesn’t think much about his spirit. There is plenty of time for that…later.

But then comes the turn. God comes to him and breaks the solace of his satisfaction: “But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’” (Luke 12:20, ESV)

When Margaret Mitchell wrote her tome of the antebellum south in Gone with the Wind, she put int he mouth of the deluded Scarlett O’Hara something we all say. “Fiddle-dee-dee. I will think of that tomorrow.”

This idea that tomorrow will be available comes with another piece. It will be different and better. And it is not connected to today. Miracles happen. Luck changes. Genies pop of clocks to give us what we want.

Why do people find themselves overweight? Because they think tomorrow they will be svelte without effort.

People say they want to retire but 70% of Americans cannot live a year off of what they save. What are they thinking? There’s going to be something magical tomorrow and I don’t have to do anything today.

This great disconnect is what the ant teaches. Two principles come from his ambling through the grass with his future on his back.

The first is:

Whatever you do today creates your tomorrow

The student who studies today can face the test on finals week with confidence.

Someone has rightfully observed, “our bodies are apt to be our autobiographies.”

But the second principle is similar:

Whatever you are tomorrow is a reflection of your today

We say many things about out lives. We say we want a secure retirement but we don’t save money. And tomorrow reflects that daily action.

We say we want to know the Bible better. But if you don’t do read it now, you won’t know it tomorrow.

We say we want people to love us and care for us and yet, today we are selfish. No one wants to care for us because of how badly we treated them today.

Harry Chapin sang a song written by his wife called Cats in the Cradle. In the song it describes a man so busy that he has no time for his son. When he is old and has time, his son has no time for him. It ends in a sorrowful lyric:

And as I hung up the phone, it occurred to me

He'd grown up just like me

My boy was just like me

When Joe Frazier was making his ascent in the boxing world on his way to becoming heavyweight champion of the world, he hated doing his roadwork before the sun came up. He would rather sleep in. But he knew better. He said, “if you cheated on that in the dark of morning, you’re going to get found out under the bright lights.”

That is the truth of Galatians 6:7.

“Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.” (Galatians 6:7, ESV)

We are self-deceived. We think we can live one way today and have different life tomorrow. But we can’t roll our eyes at God and say, “that’s not true for me.” It is for you and for me.

And when we do, even the ant shakes his head in disbelief at the foolishness.

Application

So how do we deal with the lesson the ant teaches?

First, take a journey forward in time. What do you want to be true of your life in 10 years? 50 years? In the memory of your grandchildren?

Do you want someone to care for you when you are old? You better start caring for others today. Compassion and love are reciprocal. They only flow to the giver.

Do you want to go to heaven? What do you need to do about it? Heaven is living with God. If you don’t want to live with God now, what makes you think you want to live with him for eternity?

Second, look in the mirror of today. What are you doing today? If that is the reflection of your future, every step you took today is a step to your tomorrow. Were you compassionate or busy? Stop and pick up the phone and take the time to call your parents or your kids or someone in need.

Have you read your Bible today or prayed today? Habits are daily pieces not magic incantations. Before you go to bed tonight and tomorrow and every other day, read it, think about it, let it confront you.

Your destiny is in the hands of your daily duties.

Conclusion

One of the worst words of the English language is “regret.” It has a bitter aftertaste that nothing takes away. People rue what they did and what they did not do. And it will be the ghost that haunts their life.

What do you need to do in your own life to prevent the regret of tomorrow? What lesson can you take away from the ant?

It makes a difference because we will face tomorrow.

When I was a kid, every boy wanted to be Mickie Mantle. He was the Oklahoma farm boy who could know the hide off a baseball. All of us could see ourselves in Yankee Stadium rounding the bases wearing number 7 on our back.

But the boyish athleticism was a façade of a man who spent his life drinking hard and living hard. And one day, tomorrow caught up with him.

At his last press conference on July 11, 1995, Mantle’s past caught up with him. Here is how one biographer put it:

It was a standing-room-only conference. His comic timing was still acute, but the robust physique, the popeye muscles, and the untroubled face of American plenty were gone. His tracksuit hung on his desiccated frame …. He looked like death.

"God gave me a great body and an ability to play baseball," he said. "God gave me everything, and I just … pffft!" What would be remembered most was the anguished plea to children: "I'd like to say to the kids out there, if you're looking for a role model, this is a role model. Don't be like me."

A reporter asked Mantle if he had signed a donor card. "Everything I've got is worn out," he said. "Although I've heard people say they'd like to have my heart … it's never been used."

So go to the ant. He understands. Do you?