Tiny Devotional for Saturday, 02-06-2021

 A great good morning to all my friends and neighbors in Internet Land! And to family members who have dropped by, Maxwell House (until Black Rifle delivers).

Go to the ant, you lazy one,
Observe its ways and be wise,
Which, having no chief,
Officer, or ruler,
Prepares its food in the summer
And gathers its provision in the harvest.
Proverbs 6:6-8, NASB

Don’t you think it funny that the correction to the sluggard BEGINS with an injunction to sit around and watch?

Almost all of my ant observing took place on Edna Place Road in the 1950s, when I was 3-5 years old.  
“Go play, stay in the yard, and come when I call you!”
So: I watched the ants. Ant activity was FASCINATING! There was an invisible set of trails they followed, one after the other. If I broke the trail with my finger, they’d wander around, until they picked it up again. Then, work resumed.

Solomon is pointing out that the ant doesn’t require a boss to get them out of bed, and tell them what to do. That’s worthy of emulation!

But:

Ants work ALL the time. That’s the way life goes, when you are a hunter-gatherer. It takes a day’s work to get a day’s food. No vacations. No education. No provision for the old, the sick, the injured. No figuring out better ways to do things. No TIME for all that!

I think the human way is better. We have learned how to generate food, shelter, and clothing more efficiently, to create a surplus, and provide for the weak.

So, when someone says they can’t wait for technology to fail, so they can get back to nature? Tell them  “Go to the ant, observe, and grow wise.”

Peace be on your household.

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