I Hate Fire Ants!

“God's making Himself little is the cause of our being made great.”– C.H. Spurgeon

Here in Florida, we have a lot of fire ants. When our family first moved here in 2011, I didn’t know much about them, but I sure learned fast.

One day, while fishing at a pond across from our house, I must have stepped too close to a fire ant hill and well, I’m sure you can finish the rest of the sentence. The bites stung and then started itching soon thereafter. After a day or two, they developed a head and when I knocked one off while scratching it, my foot soon swelled to almost twice its normal size. The same thing happened to a bite I received on my hand a little later.

Since then, I have done my very best to avoid fire ants at all costs. However, when one does bite me, it is no more than a minor inconvenience. I guess this Jersey Boy is a true Floridian now because it seems like I have built up an immunity to them.

That being said, I cannot fathom wanting to be like a fire ant… or to stoop to their size and take on their mannerisms. And I certainly can’t imagine myself willingly dying for a fire ant.

But that is the best analogy I can come up with to describe what Jesus did by leaving heaven’s throne room, taking on human flesh, and then allowing His creation to put Him to death. It is truly mindboggling, if you ask me.

Here is how Charles Spurgeon, the “Prince of Preachers,” put it…

“We are so little that if God should display His greatness without condescension, we would be trampled under His feet; but God, who must stoop to view the skies and bow to see what angels do, turns His eye yet lower and looks to the lowly and contrite and makes them great.”

Keep that in mind the next time you get bitten by a fire ant, a mosquito, or some other pesky and near worthless insect.

“And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross.” Philippians 2:8 (BSB)

- Rev. Dale M. Glading, President