How Ants Reflect Us in the Church

Have you ever felt that you were not doing enough in church because of your more behind-the-scenes or quiet position in the ministry that you were serving in? 

Seeing that some roles such as worship leaders, evangelists, and cell group leaders tend to be more prominent and front-facing, it might be easy to compare ourselves to them and let feelings of doubt, inadequacy, and questions of self-worth run rife in our minds. 

Be it at church or the marketplace, we have roles that serve important purposes no matter how small these positions seem to be. However, we might idolise certain roles more than others. It is crucial that we spend some time pondering about the reasons that we look up to these roles, as well as reflect on the reason why we are serving. 

Sometimes, we can be influenced by the view of the world which portrays status and power to be a form of achievement to chase after – with the idea that we would be more significant if we held certain positions. 

Through an example of God’s creation, let us see how we might view our significance through different lenses.

So, you may ask “how are you gonna illustrate a different lens through the writing of creation?” Well, I noticed that we are not the only ones who have various roles in various communities. For instance, we might observe that within some polymorphic ant species such as Carebara diversa, different ants have distinct roles to ensure the survival of their colony. Some play the role of workers (minors) which forage for food for the entire colony, some tend to the growing larvae, while others serve as soldiers (majors) to protect the colony from intruders. 

All of these distinct roles are determined by their size once the ants reach adulthood. The larger ones have bigger heads and mandibles which better aid in the defence and patrol of the colony against intruders, while the smaller ones have smaller jaws which aid in delicate tasks such as tending to the larvae. 

So, can we say that the soldier ants are more crucial than the worker ants because they defend the colony? Or vice versa to say that the workers are more crucial than the soldier ants because food is that key for survival?

I am reminded of the verse from 1 Corinthians 12:17-18:

17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.