Ants Have Two Stomachs

Recently, my kitchen has been invaded by ants.  Just so you know, ants totally gross me out...  more than spiders.  There's nothing that freaks me out like sitting on a patch of grass and then realizing the ground around you looks like it's moving with an entire ant city.

But oftentimes, what we fear is also something fascinating because we usually fear what we can't control or understand.  And even I have to admit, ants are fascinating.

Here are some ant facts for you to check out:  

http://antark.net/ant-facts/

Two facts about ants that I've been thinking about are: (1) they can carry burdens much bigger than themselves and (2) they feed each other.

I think about how the Bible says: "carry each other's burdens" (Galatians 6:2) and also that "I can do all this through him who gives me strength." (Philippians 4:13). Unlike some ant species, I know that I cannot lift anything 100 times my own weight on my own- neither literally or figuratively.  But I believe that God enables us to do and to carry much more by his strength.

My favorite ant fact though is that ants have two stomachs- one regular stomach and one stomach to feed other ants.  Built into their very anatomy is the responsibility of feeding each other.

Furthermore, a singular ant is almost always insignificant, but an entire group of ants can carry great things together.  So too, the family of believers can carry great things for one another.  We are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses as we run our race.  So when one of us is too weak or weary to pray, let us as a family of believers pray for him.  When one of us has moments of doubt and fear that cripples any hope for a miracle, let us hope for a miracle for her.  We are one.  We are united.  We can carry each other's burdens, we can pray each other's prayers, we can hope each other's hopes.

Perhaps the hardest part of all of this is allowing for others to carry my burdens.  Admitting when I lack faith or hope or love enough to pray big prayers for God's amazing work to be done.  Confessing my sins and weaknesses and struggles in order for people to pray with me, pray for me, and encourage me.  Realizing the moments in which I cannot feed myself and must be fed by another.  Allowing the Church, allowing God's people, to actually be my family as God intended it to be.  This is the hardest thing, but it is the most beautiful of all.

"...But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other.  If one part suffers, every part suffers with it.  If one part is honored, every part rejoices with it."

(1 Corinthians 12:24-26)