Small and Mighty

Proverbs 30:25 Ants are creatures of little strength,
yet they store up their food in the summer

One of the downfalls of living in the country are the insects. Our yard has a tendency to be over run with fire ants if we let our guard down or run out of fireant killer.
This afternoon, I stepped out onto the front porch to put the trash out. With the temperatures in the upper 60's, I didn't bother putting shoes on. Big mistake.
As I reached down to lift the lid to the trash can, I felt the first sting. I looked down to see not one, but three ants crawling across my toes. Before I had time to react, the little critters had gotten me three more times. Two of them were between my toes!
How is that something so tiny can create something that itches so badly?

Many of the stories that we tell to children are about those that have overcome adversity when there seemed to be no hope: Daniel and Goliath, The Little Engine that Could, Babe and the Big Blue Ox, The Tortoise and the Hare. But my favorite is The Little Red Ant and the Great Big Crumb. It's the story of a small red ant who finds a large crumb of cake in the middle of a Mexican corn field. The crumb is too big for her to carry, and she spends most of her time looking for another creature to help her get the bit of food back to the ant hill. In the end, after almost getting caught in a spider web, and eaten by a lizard and bird and an alligator, she finally makes it back home with her crumb of cake. Despite being the youngest and the smallest ant, she succeeded through perseverance.

How many times am I like that tiny ant? I feel overwhelmed by the circumstances around me, but like the ant, I often look for help in the wrong direction. Rather than trusting God to give me the strength that I need to overcome the obstacles, I instead look for ways to "fix it". It is then that the weight of my "crumb" threatens to crush me. It is my prayer that I will take a lesson from one of God's tiniest creatures; and in the process find my way home.