so as i watch them work carrying small pieces of my biscuit that i dropped earlier in the day, i remember that ants don't actually use their eyes as much to navigate, they use their antennas to smell and follow the path of the ant in front of them. so thinking about that and being an ant bully, i wondered how easily i could disrupt the path that they were taking. it didn't take long to completely throw them off. all i did was simply rub my finger across the pole when there was a break in the line of ants. a simple thumbprint through off the entire line, and whenever they would get to my thumbprint, they would just scurry around and it would cause some sort of ant traffic jam. they would be turning circles and bumping into each other and some would even turn around and go back towards the biscuit crumbs. it was mass ant chaos.
as i was watching them i got to thinking about how similar we are to ants. i know we don't have 6 legs with three joints on each and we (if we are reading this) have most likely lived longer than 45-60 days which is the average lifespan of an ant and also it would mean that we would have more than 250,000 brain cells like an ant compared to our over 10 million, even though some of us only use 250,000 of them. and i seriously doubt that any of us can pick up 20 times our body weight. but thats not what i'm meaning by how we are similar to ants, i'm not talking about our physical make up, but i'm talking about the actions we take when there is a fingerprint in the way of our path. when there is something in the way, we tend to scurry around and panic. when there is a thumbprint in the way of the path we have been on we are reluctant to follow the one in front of us. we turn around and run and wind up bumping heads and getting caught in a traffic jam.
instead of focusing on the path in front of us and trusting that what's ahead is where we need to go, we turn and make new paths of our own. Proverbs 16:9 says, "the heart of a man plans his ways, but the Lord determines his step." So take hold of this and realize that the steps you are taking are of the Lord if you are following in his steps. In Isaiah 30:21 it says, "whether you turn to the left or the right, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, "this is the way, walk in it." i really like how that verse offers hope for when you are completely lost and you feel like you are so off track. if you just listen for it, the voice will lead you to where you need to go.
whenever you encounter thumbprints in your path, trust in God. trust that he will deliver you from your situation and continue walking straight through that thumbprint and don't be moved towards another path. Isaiah 59:8, "the way of peace they do not know, there is no justice in their paths, they have turned them into crooked roads, no one who walks in them will know peace." when i read that, i couldn't get the image of the chaos of ants out of my head, as they are circling around and around trying to find there way through, they are obviously in a state of panic, and there is definitely no peace in panic. and with all of the different paths they were taking, that straight road they had earlier, was nothing more than a free for all of intertwined paths eventually coming back together way after the spot i put my thumb down at.
the devil throws thumbprints at us all the time, he wipes he conniving hands across our paths, just to try and throw us off. and he does it, because he is afraid of the potential we have when we are living a bold and uplifting life for the one who created us. even though we are not ants, and can't lift 20 times our body weight, we both get caught up in the same chaos caused by a simple thumbprint.
Jeremiah 6!!! read it. it connects brilliantly with not listening to the voice of God and following him. it discuss the consequences and yet still shows the love that God has for us. even when we are destroyed, he will pick us up and rebuild us, from the ground up.
:)
