TOMMY and Sarah were playing together in the backyard of their new home. Their family had recently moved to a southern state and they were not used to everything found in that warmer climate. Mother had told them: “Don’t go near that little pile of sand over there because there are fire ants in it, and they bite very hard.”
After Mother went back into the house, Tommy and Sarah went over to the anthill. They stood watching the little ants with great interest. “Let’s get a stick and poke it into the pile,” said Tommy. So they each found a stick and began to poke around in the pile of sand. This stirred up those busy little ants.
The Bible tells us that “it is an honor... to cease from strife [stay out of trouble]: but every fool will be meddling.” Proverbs 20:3. “Meddling” means to get into something that is none of your business. The dictionary says it is to “interfere”. Tommy and Sarah were meddling with that anthill when they were plainly told not to. Not only did they disobey their mother, they also were very unwise to meddle with fire ants.
Almost immediately, hundreds of biting, reddish-brown ants swarmed up the sticks and onto Tommy’s and Sarah’s hands and arms, and more crawled up their legs.
Suddenly Mother heard screams from the backyard. She came rushing out of the house to find biting ants all over Tommy and Sarah. She grabbed the two children and quickly dumped them into their little wading pool. As she tried to wash the ants off the children, they crawled onto her arms and bit her too. When she finally got the ants off the children and herself, all three of them were covered with hundreds of tiny, red, stinging bites!
How sorry the children were for not listening to their mother. They had learned a lesson the hard way. “Be sure your sin will find you out.” Numbers 32:23. They could have saved themselves and their mother a lot of pain and unhappiness if they had only remembered the Bible verse they had learned in Sunday school “Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.” Ephesians 6:1.
A few days later there was a heavy rainstorm, and the backyard flooded. Mother went out with her boots on to pick up toys Tommy and Sarah had left outside. Looking over where the anthill had been and seeing that it had washed away, she thought, Now we’ll be rid of those terrible little fire ants! But looking around, she discovered colonies of them had clustered together, forming living rafts to keep from drowning. As a result many would live.
After the water went down, those ants had spread all around the yard in places where they had not been before. The family’s fire ant problems were not over. We certainly hope Tommy and Sarah’s painful lesson will keep them far away from the ants. But even some of us who are older will ignore lessons and warnings. And there are usually sad results. Those of us, young or old, who have accepted the Lord Jesus as our Saviour can turn to Him for help when we are tempted to sin. We have the promise, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” Psalm 46:1.
ML-07/28/1991