THE ANT IS SPEAKING TO YOU

Angela lay on her stomach on the sitting room sofa, playing a game on her phone. This attitude had become her daily routine for the past few weeks after trying unsuccessfully to get a job. She had struggled all alone in her job hunt without involving anybody.

 And having tried and “failed,” she momentarily gave up the search in frustration, and depended on her parents for support until something concrete came up. Remaining in that position almost all morning, her stomach began to ache. She figured it was time to prepare lunch (brunch for herself) so she could eat something since she hadn’t eaten any food. Moreover, her younger siblings would soon come back from school and food had to be ready before they arrived, or else there would be trouble, especially from 6-year – old John, whose appetite for food is almost insatiable. 

As she sauntered into the kitchen with sleepy eyes, something caught her attention. She noticed an ant lifting a food particle four times its size off the kitchen table. It dragged the particle along the wall daringly, stopped a few times, and then continued on its way. Suddenly, other ants immediately gathered around as if following a trail, helping it to drag the food towards their destination. 

Angela watched on with deep admiration for a while, and then decided to disturb the pattern. Using her index finger, she extricated the food fragment from the grip of the ants, and nudged it some distance away from their procession, injuring one of them in the process. But that didn’t deter them. They quickly came together, evacuated the wounded ant, then reorganized themselves after locating the food fragment again, and continued on the trail they had created.

Angela was so fascinated that long after the ants had disappeared, she stood still, looking at the crack in the wall through which they had vanished. That experience taught her a vital lesson about her situation. Right there and then, she snapped out of her mood and decided to resume her job hunt, involving other people this time round. 

Have you ever observed an ant from close range? Have you ever seen an anthill? What did you notice? Have you also ever tried looking at the world from an ant’s perspective? If you have, what did you learn? If you haven’t then it’s about time you did so because many times, God uses little and seemingly insignificant things to teach us great lessons. 

The Scriptures say in 1 Corinthians 1:27, “God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.”

One of the ways to get the best from life is to learn from the lifestyle, experience and accomplishments of others, no matter their status. A closer study of the ants and their way of life will teach you an unforgettable lesson.

The ants have been famous in all ages for their foresight, economy and industry. These tiny creatures, which form their colonies (a family of ants) of varying sizes in many parts of the earth, can survive in most ecosystems due to their ability to adapt to any habitat, organize themselves, exploit available food resources and defend themselves against external aggression.

The colonies they form ranges from a collection of few individual ants living together in a small enclave to a much more organized and larger territory, which may consist of thousands or millions of individual ants. The ant colonies are described as “super organisms,” with all the individual ants forming the colony working together to support the colony as a single unified host. The society of ants is so organized that in every colony, there are different castes of ants such as soldiers, workers, drones, and others, each performing different tasks that are essential to their survival.