Today's Scripture Reading (September 13, 2025): Psalm 144
I live on an anthill. Okay,
maybe that is an overstatement, but sometimes it feels like the whole city is
built on an anthill; I mean, ants seem to be everywhere. I remember camping as
a teenager and stumbling upon what was probably the most enormous anthill I had
ever seen. The hill had to be at least four or five feet high, and of course,
that was just the portion of the ant complex that was above ground. Someone
decided the hill was a problem and tackled it with a shovel. It was the wrong
thing to do. The ants were everywhere, attacking and biting everything in the
area, including their human victims. I've never seen so many ants in one location.
As I said, I think I live on
an anthill. However, I take very little notice of the small insects. The only
time I really see them is when they're somewhere I don't want them to be, they
are present in huge numbers, or during that time of year when flying ants break
out of the ground and seem to take hold and cover the trees in my yard. Ants
are simply ever-present, but as long as they are not inside the house and are
in small numbers outside in my yard, they are tolerated. I probably don't even
know they are present in my lawn unless I begin to see the gentle rise of an
anthill. Ants just aren't all that important to me.
A while back, my grandson
built a science experiment that we've probably all tried at one time or
another. The idea is to put some ants and dirt under glass and watch these
industrious bugs build a home in the modified ant hill. As he showed it to me,
my biggest concern was that he was careful enough to prevent the ants from
getting loose inside the house.
David asks a question that a
lot of us ask. God, who are we that you would take notice of us? Who are we,
this fragile species we call humanity, that you would take care of us? It is an
ancient question, and it is more common than we might think. Many of the people
that we might call the founding fathers of the continent we call North America,
at least in the United States and Canada, were Deists. What that meant was that
they believed in a God who created the world, but not in a personal God who
continues to lead his people. These men, and yes, they were all men, believed
that God created the world and then walked away from his creation. Everything
that has happened since has happened by chance because God is too big and
complex to care what we, who are like ants to him, are doing.
That wasn't the God that
David knew. David knew a God who had created the world and then stuck around to
help his creation. David had experienced that help, even if he didn't
understand why God would take notice of him. As far as David was concerned, God
was as far above him as the King of Israel was above an ant. The king didn't
notice the ants of his kingdom, so why did God notice him?
It is an unanswerable
question, and yet, David understood that he served a personal God. One who
heard his prayers, chastised him for his sin, and helped him when he was in
trouble. He served a God who was proud of him when he did good, and cared for and
thought of him often. A God who loves us, just as he loved David; as for why,
maybe we can ask that question at the end of time when we get to come into his
presence.
Tomorrow's Scripture Reading:
Psalm 145
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