The Ant Farm: a story of grace.

I had this ant farm as a kid. It wasn't the greatest toy in the world, but for a kid without cable, watching living creatures tunnel and forage is better than nothing.

I had to send off for my ants, they didn't come in the farm you buy at the store…makes sense, I guess. If the product doesn't move fast enough off the store shelf, you are left not with ants, but with little black tic-tacs.

When my ants came, I dumped them into their 8" by 10" Plexiglas world, and the little guys went to town (farm). They worked and played, loved and died, all under my watchful care. And they never once stopped to thank me.

This ingratitude was upsetting to me. Did I not feed them? Did I not keep them dry and warm? Did I not give them light and dark? Except for my solar eclipse experiments involving a flashlight and a piece of cardboard held above the farm, did I not regulate their natural world? (You should see earthquakes!) Was I not, to them, ANT-GOD? Yet after all of this, these ants didn't seem to know (or care) that I existed!

I could not simply tell them about myself by speaking to them as I would to a human---the knowledge of reality as we humans know it would blow their little ant minds. I hinted at my existence, but they kept right on, ignoring me and living however they pleased. The little ant-theists.

And so it is with humans and God. We go about our lives without any knowledge of God. In fact, the Bible says that we are enemies of God (Romans 5:10). We may not think we are, but we are (Romans 3:23). This is sin, hatred of God. And we are in great danger from this power of sin, which leads us to destruction.

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