These are pictures of an ant. The ant is walking across my driveway while carrying an oversized load. This ant reminds me of an overloaded semi, trailing one of the turbines for an electricity-producing windmill. For the ant, this load is the wing of a larger insect. You have to wonder what he's going to do with that wing. It's a pretty wing, but I don't suppose the ant cares much about that. |
Many of us carry heavy loads, as well. You can't always see them, but they are there - the worries of everyday life. Whether they be bills that shorten the lifespan of our paychecks, children who stray from the strait and narrow, illnesses that we can't seem to keep in check, the burdens we often bear are larger than we are, and like the ant, we find ourselves struggling to make it all work out. |
That reminds me of a Frank Sinatra song called High Hopes: Next time you’re found, with your chin on the ground | It's a catchy little ditty when put to tune, but the encouragement that song provides is really tried and true. It is right to say that we bear our own crosses - including all of the stresses and anxieties that we pick up along the path of life - but we also try to carry loads that we don't need to carry. The Lord tells us not to worry about tomorrow, because there is enough to think about today...but we still worry about the uncertainties that we're not even facing yet, don't we? We still let things get into our heads that we should put at His feet instead. That ant in the pictures is not worried about what he's going to eat or where he's going to sleep. He's just tackling the problem in front of him. |
I look for a lesson in the ant carrying a giant wing, but an ant can carry 10-50 times his own weight. No human could do the same, but with faith in God - and God's assistance - we will be able to bear tremendous burdens, too.