Historical Setting, 629 C.E. The Farm in the Vosges Mts.
I watch our little grandson entranced by something very close to earth captivating his full attention. Well, maybe it is barely above the earth just now. Most of us stand taller than this child so we are completely numb to this huge event. But he notices it and he can’t stop looking. A whole colony of ants are right here between the stones of the path we walk over several times a day. And here I’ve been oblivious! It seems to be something of major importance and yet only one of us noticed.
He asks me, as I would seem to be ignoring it, “Does God know about this?”
“What?”
“This dark spot on the ground is really nearly one hundred ants.”
So, I stop and take notice of it. “Surely it is more than one hundred. And I would expect God does know about this, and maybe God has counted every one of these.”
“So, you think God can count to more than one hundred?”
“Yes, I’m pretty sure of that. So, what are they doing?”
“They’re planning a wedding.” He tells me with all the assurance of wide-eyes and all-seeing.
“Here they are building the church just from these round pieces of dirt they found in this hole, but so many guests are already here, and look, more are coming, and they are all in a long line following a single path. No one is out of line pushing, or running ahead. And look over here, in this line they are coming with gifts…”
It’s true. The more we watch them the more interesting they become.
They seem to all move together with one mind and one purpose. It makes me wonder how God might see the wedding preparations we are doing on this particular day. There are none of these single-purposed tidy lines, where everyone follows a great unseen plan building the church as the guests arrive with some bearing gifts. Every human here has their own particular variety of chaos, and nowhere is there any order to be found.
Dear God, do you know about this? These people to whom you give so much and allow us our choices and creativity and even power over other creatures, are still trying to figure out this ant gift of order and purpose. The musicians will call it the dance. Thank you for letting it be. Amen.
(Continues tomorrow)
Lazarus Ink 