The Ant Farm
Don't neglect your relationship with God.
“My yoke is easy and my burden is light.” — Matthew 11:30
Deuteronomy 6:12 cautions, “Take care lest you forget the Lord.” To forget is to erase something from the mind or treat it as unimportant—like a person who no longer holds a place in our thoughts.
Hebrews 2:1 warns, “We must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.” To drift away is to separate slowly and almost imperceptibly—like a couple who stop investing in each other until they find themselves emotional strangers.
Jeremiah 2:13 states, “My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.” To forsake is to desert or walk away from someone or something that once mattered—like Hansel and Gretel left alone in the woods, or a pet discarded and forgotten.
Revelation 2:4 says, “I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.” To abandon means to leave something empty and unattended, with no intention of returning—like a broken-down car you no longer want.
In “The Ants,” a short story by French writer André Maurois, a young woman buys an ant farm—a delicate world of tiny brown workers and their queen—after a shopkeeper tells her that a single drop of honey each month will keep the colony alive. Delighted by the novelty, she shows it off to her lover, who admires her charm and curiosity as much as the ants themselves. But when her brief fascination fades, she hides the ant farm away and forgets her monthly duty. Neglected, the ants slowly starve, saving the last speck of honey for their queen, who is the final one to die.
In much the same way, without proper care, we risk neglecting our relationship with God—forgetting, drifting away, forsaking, and ultimately abandoning it. If we fail to nourish it through prayer, communion, fellowship, and the Word, it can wither and die, like forsaken ants between panes of glass.
But the truth is simple and gracious: our relationship with God requires so little to be kept alive. As Jesus said, “My yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:30).
But it does require intention. Make the relationship happen. Put it first. Eliminate distractions. Nourish your relationship with God. He has promised never to forsake you—so do not forsake Him.
Graceful Contemplation
Here is “The Ants” in its entirety:
Between two sheets of glass, fastened together by strips of gummed paper along the edges, a colony of tiny brown monsters was toiling and moiling. The shopkeeper had provided the ants with a little sand, in which they had made converging passages. Right in the middle could be seen a larger creature, nearly always motionless. This was the Queen, to whom the ants respectfully brought nourishment.
“No trouble at all,” said the salesman. “All you have to do is to place a morsel of honey in this opening, once a month. . . . just one morsel. . . . . The ants will see to carrying it and sharing it for themselves. . . .”
“Once a month?” said the young woman. “Is one little piece enough to keep this whole nation alive for a month?”
She wore a large white straw hat, a dress of flowered muslin. Her arms were bare. The salesman eyed her sadly.
“One morsel is enough,” he repeated.
“How delightful!” she said.
And she bought the transparent ant-heap.
. . .
“Darling!” she said. “Have you seen my ants?”
She was holding the flat, thin, living frame between her pale fingers with their tinted nails. The man seated beside her admired the curve of her bent neck.
“How interesting you make life, my dear … With you, everything is fresh and different … Last night, Bach … and now, these ants …”
“Look, darling,” she said, with the childlike eagerness that he loved (as she knew). “Do you see that great big one there? That’s the Queen … The workers wait on her … I feed them myself … And would you believe it, dear—one drop of honey a month is all they need! Poetic, isn’t it?”
. . .
After a week her lover and her had both tired of the ant-heap. She hid it behind the mirror on the mantelpiece of her room. At the end of the month she forgot the little piece of honey. Slowly the ants starved to death. To the very end they kept a speck of honey for the Queen, who was the last to perish.
NEWS OF THE MONTH!
Book 5 of my inspirational gothic romance series, Shadow Point Christmas, is here! Share the hope and mystery of Shadow Point with someone you love. It’s the perfect gift for the Christian reader in your life.
Thank you for reading!
October flew by like a speeding ghost! Book 5 of my Shadow Point series was published, I enjoyed a wonderful visit from my daughter, and my youth group held a Halloween party!
