Arty the Ant
There
was once an ant called Arty. Every day he woke up early in the morning and
spent the whole day finding and collecting food for the nest. Every day was the
same, up at dawn, work all day and go to bed exhausted at night. 
Then
one morning Arty thought. ‘I am tired of working all day. I think today I’ll
stay home and watch the grass grow and eat that chip crumb I found under Nathanael’s bed.
So
Arty collected his crumb and settled back for a quiet day, wondering to himself
why he hadn’t thought to have a day off earlier.
Well,
as all of you know, Ants are very organised insects and it wasn’t long before
someone realized that Arty was missing. And Alex Ant, Arty’s older brother –
who was a soldier ant, was sent to look for him.
Alex
knocked on Arty’s door and then let himself in. ‘Arty, what are you doing lying
there in bed…are you sick?’
‘No’, Arty replied. ‘It’s my day off.’
‘Day off!’ shouted
Alex. ‘We don’t get days off in Summer. We have a strict schedule to follow.
Now get up. We need to hurry and catch up to the others.’
Arty moaned and put his pillow
over his head.
‘All
I do is hurry…’, complained Arty ‘It’s quick Arty, there’s a piece of
Taco over there or Hurry Arty, there’s a sun flower seed over there…get it
before that pigeon does – As if I can take on a pigeon.’
‘Now
Arty, the nest needs you…’ reminded Alex patiently.
Arty was annoyed. ‘No they don’t. They
won’t notice if I stay home. There has to be at least 10,000 others doing the
same job as me. I am sure they can manage with 9,999 today. Besides, who are
you to tell me to hurry. All you do is stand around all day…’
‘I
might look to you like I stand around all day,’ replied Alex, defensively. ‘But
just last week our nest was stepped on by Linda while she was hanging
out the washing. If I hadn’t given her a good nip we’d all have been turned
into ant pate. You workers all run away while we soldier ants run towards the
danger.’
‘You are right,’ replied Arty sadly. ‘
I’m just a worker and not important like you are. So who will care if I stay
home today?’
‘We
are all important,’ Alex corrected him. ‘If you and all the other workers
stopped gathering food, all us soldiers would starve. We need you, all of you to
look for food. What if today was the day you were going to find ½ a snicker’s
bar and you chose to stay home instead?’
‘But
I don’t like snickers…’ Arty argued. ‘I have a nut allergy.’
‘Well, dairy milk then,’ replied Alex. ‘The point is you are
an important part of the nest. The Queen depends on you to help search for
food. Because when winter comes it will be too late. We all have to work
together so we can keep the nest going.
What if tomorrow the other 9,999 worker ants decided to stay
home while you work? Where would that leave you? Come on Arty, I’ll help you find your spot in
the line. It isn’t too late to catch up’.
‘Am I really that important to the Queen?’ Arty asked
‘Of
course you are!’ replied Alex.
So Arty
clambered out of bed. ‘OK then, but will you teach me how to nip? I’d like to
have a turn at’…
We are all parts of God’s body. It takes every one of us to make
it complete, for we each have different work to do. So we belong to each other,
and each needs all the others.
Romans 12:5
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