OBSERVING THE ANTS

When my son was a child, we got him a small ant farm for Christmas one year.  If some of you aren’t familiar with an ant farm, it’s two plates of glass sealed together with approximately ¾” space between them.  That space is filled up with soil and live ants are put in.  The ants go to work making a new home for themselves, and because the space is so narrow, many of their tunnels are right next to the glass so you can watch the ants at work. There’s a screened opening at the top where food and water can be added. 

This ant farm provided hours of fascinating observation and learning the ways of the ants.  As we sat and watched them, we’d play the game of ‘pretend,’ and make up stories about the ants.

 I invite you to join me in a game of ‘pretend.’

Let’s pretend that you have the power to create a colony of ants.  Not only are you able to create them and bring them to life, but also to give them all the characteristics of ants as we know them. 

You make the ants and they belong to you.  You get to make up all the rules for how they live.  You provide soft soil with lots of nutrients for their home. You love them and they seem very happy.  But, for their own protection, you have set up some expectations.  You create boundaries around the anthill beyond which the ants are not to go.  Specifically, they are not to leave the area and feed from the nearby garbage heap because an anteater often prowls around there looking for ants, and who knows what might happen!   

All is going well until one day the anteater is out exploring and wants to eat some ants.  He sees your ant colony and heads straight for it.  However, knowing the dangers that can afflict your colony of ants, you have built a special protection around the anthill.

The anteater discovers that he is not able to get any of the ants as long as they stay in the protected environment you have created for them.  He knows that the only way he can get to your ants is to coax them out of that protected area, so he deceives them into thinking the garbage heap is better food than what you have provided for them. Much to your sorrow and dismay, your beloved ants fall for it. 

Once the ants start eating from the garbage heap, there is no turning back.  Their desire for the garbage causes them to forget all about staying in the protected area. In fact, they seem to scurry away and try to hide from you when they see you coming.

As time goes on, the ants multiply and start making anthills all over the area around the garbage heap, and the happy anteater is continually raiding their colonies.  The ants’ lives are continually disrupted by the anteater, and as a result the various colonies begin to compete for the garbage and fights break out among them. They lose their ability to work together for the good of the colony because each one is looking out for itself.

This causes you great sadness, however you have a plan.  Because you love them so much you decide to come and save them from this terrible plight.  You will enter into their world by becoming one of them to teach them how to live and to free them from the consequences of their rebellion.  

You are born as an ant in a dysfunctional colony next to the garbage heap. It’s a great mystery as to how you are able to do this, but because you have the power to create, you have the power to become one of them. Your purpose for coming is to restore them and teach them to live according to your original plan.

But not all the ants will listen and change their ways. The anteater tries his best to thwart your plans, and finally he thinks he’s getting the upper hand.  He has a number of ants under his control that actually gang up on you and kill you.

But because you are the creator, you get to tell the story. You, the ant, come back to life.  This really freaks out the anteater who realizes he is doomed.  Those ants who have been restored live in peace, looking forward to the day when the anteater and the rebellious ants are completely gone.

You have now become the ants’ hero and every year they celebrate your birthday.

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And so ends our game of ‘pretend.’ 

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But there is a story on which this allegory is based that is not ‘pretend.’  It is the reason we celebrate Christmas—the birth of Jesus, God becoming flesh like His creation, to save us from the consequences of our rebellion against Him. 

In doing this, He removes our guilt and replaces it with lasting peace, giving us assurance that we will spend eternity with Him, living in new physical bodies on a new physical earth the way God originally intended—without sin.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

“And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us…”

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.”  John 1:1, 1:14a, 3:16.