Purpose Driven Anthill

Day 291 in my "Year In My Life Through Pictures" blog series

I've seen this anthill behind our house many times. Usually I just snarl my nose up at it and hope they don't migrate into our house. Today was a little different. I just watched these little ants working their little legs off. I was impressed with their agility, their strength and how they all seemed to be on a mission.

I wondered what they were actually working for. What is their goal? What do they do under the ground? Do they ever sleep? What do they eat? Where do they relieve themselves?

It's hard to think about a life form that seemingly has no impact on anything other than its ant hill. To us humans these ants are a nuisance, but what is their actual purpose? For that matter, what is the purpose of any life form? I know the I know the chief purpose of man is to glorify God. I've not really followed catechisms before, but I do know that the Westminster Shorter Catechism's first question is: "What is the chief end of man?" With the answer: "To glorify God". I would tend to agree with that, even though we fall way short most of the time and seem to always want to glorify ourselves.

But what about other life forms? Do we really need organisms that live in the volcanic discharges in the oceans? Would we be fine without the platypus? How about things like poison ivy? What purpose does that serve, other than to make us itch? Then there is the question of the vastness of the universe. What is the purpose of having billions of planets and stars? To which the answer to all is to point to our awesome God that created it all. The smallest microbe screams praises in its life to our God. The endless universe, as recently observed by modern science" shows just how small we are and how big God is. Everything that God created naturally points to Him, even us rebellious humans.

I just hope that if I ever start feeling down or "useless" that I think of the ant. It's purpose is being carried out without delay and very diligently. An ant never once questions its purpose or shakes its ant fist at God. I hope that I can be the same as the lowly ant and just do what I was designed for - Glorify God. The rest will fall into place as He directs my steps.