Saturday, August 24, 2013

Ant Farm



My wife and I decided to teach our 4-year-old daughter a letter a week; our goal is for her to be able to write the capital and lower case letter and know the sounds the letter makes. And for each week we are doing a project that reinforces the letter.

We just finished week 1, so to demonstrate the letter A in action I thought it would be fun to make an ant farm. But making an ant farm on the fly can be difficult when there is no terrarium around. I grabbed a clear storage tub with a snap on lid, but after filling it with fire ants I realized that there was enough room for the ants to crawl out around the handles, so I started over.

Next I used a clear bowl we use to store leftovers. One shovel full from an ant bed overfilled the bowl, so I had to press the lid down very tightly. In the morning I realized that (1) there wasn’t enough room for the ants to displace dirt to make tunnels, and (2) most of the ants were dead. My 3rd attempt finally yielded some decent tunnels. I also got about a dozen ant bites on my hands throughout the experience.

Did I mention that I’m allergic to ants?

I was going to make that ant farm even if it killed me (and it could have!), and once I was finished, my daughter was not impressed. Not only was she not excited about my meager ant farm, she didn’t even realize what I went through to make it.

So many people wander through life oblivious of what Jesus went through to offer them forgiveness. Some people know about the cross, but they aren’t impressed. What a shame it is that some people will die in their sins, never having received the free gift that God offers them through Jesus.

If you have received this gift, stop and thank Jesus right now for what He endured to make that possible. As I reflect on Him right now, a handful of ant bites hardly seems like something to complain about.

"Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed."
1 Peter 2:24

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