Friday, September 21, 2018

Unusually Wise

Friday, September 21, 2018

There are four things on earth that are small but unusually wise:  Ants—they aren’t strong, but they store up food all summer.  Hyraxes—they aren’t powerful, but they make their homes among the rocks.  Locusts—they have no king, but they march in formation.  Lizards—they are easy to catch, but they are found even in kings’ palaces.  Proverbs 30:24-28(NLT)

Sometimes it’s easy to miss the small things – ants, lizards, locusts (well, it’s hard to miss a swarm of locusts), and hyraxes.  Hyraxes?  I had to look that one up.  It seems the little critter that resembles your average rodent is more related to an elephant or manatee than Mickey Mouse[2].  They have multichambered stomachs like cows, for digesting even the toughest plant materials, and their incisor teeth grow throughout the lifetime like tusks.  They live in the Middle East and Africa in the dry, rocky regions, subsisting in barren places.  You must be unusually wise to survive in places like that!
The four creatures have wisdom in common, but what makes them such worthy examples that we should learn from them?  Perhaps it’s community cooperation.

Ants

The power of the anthill is legendary.  One ant might be a nuisance, but his family can end a picnic.  I have seen anthills in Zimbabwe that are more like ant mountains, 10 feet high!  One ant might take a lifetime to build a condominium like that; the cooperating colony can build it faster than Donald Trump can put up another tower.

Locusts

Well, who hasn’t seen a Nat Geo special that includes a swarm of locusts denuding the landscape of vegetation.  They march (fly) in formation according to the proverb.  They have no king or ruler, but the community moves together, turns together, and has the same purpose together…eat!  (Methodists have that last part down to a science!)

Hyraxes

The rock mouse lives in community and fiercely defends its’ tribe!  This kind of cooperation is called loyalty. 

Lizards

The prehistoric lizard finds a place to survive…desert, mountain, king’s palace or garbage dump; they go about the business of life.  What makes them unusually wise in this respect is their adaptability to conditions.  Lizards, like most species, do not generally thrive in captivity, but faced with the live or die of harsh challenges in the wild, they exist everywhere, proliferating, and serving God’s purposes.
Building like ants, moving like locusts, loyal like hyraxes and unafraid like the lizards – this is the formula of four kinds of small, but unusually wise groups of creatures.
I would say that formula also works for churches and families!
For You Today
Build…don’t tear down.
Move…don’t couch potato.
Be loyal…don’t be a fair-weather sort.
Adapt…there’s more than one way to serve God and each other.
You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

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[1] Title Image: Photo Courtesy of Pixabay.com

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