Have you ever seen a peony bush covered with ants? I saw one the other day, and it reminded me of the horror of seeing one for the first time. They were swarming all over dozens of round fuchsia tinged buds on my Mom’s plant – flowers so tightly wadded that I was amazed they would someday open and become a flower. But upon closer examination it didn’t look like the ants were eating the flowers, but maybe licking them? Could it be they were trying to open the buds?
Later I looked it up and discovered that ants do in fact have a symbiotic relationship to peony flowers. Ants love the sweet nectar of the immature blooms. But sometimes the peony nectar runs so thick that it is believed that without the ants “doing what they love to do,” its flowers might not open! And, that the ants’ presence wards off other insects that might harm the plant.
Beautiful little details like this are, to me, a reminder of the good things that naturally happen when we do what we are created to do. The ants aren’t consciously trying to help open the blooms. They simply love the nectar, and in the process of going after the nectar they end up helping a plant that needs assistance. Likewise when we go after what we were created to go after, by loving what (or more accurately, Who) we are created to love and be in relationship to – we will make the impact on the world we were meant to make.
{Where has your beloved gone,
O most beautiful among women?
Where has your beloved turned,
That we may seek him with you?}
My beloved has gone down to his garden,
To the beds of balsam,
To feed in the gardens, and gather lilies.
I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine,
He who grazes among the lilies.
~Song of Songs ~
Why do we think we need to struggle to perform what we think we need to do? The ants were just being ants and never noticed the results of what they did. Maybe our “best work” will be unnoticed by us and will only benefit others. If we can avoid the toxins of life (and bad relationships). Just be you and do what you do.
Thank you, Jerry, that was well put. The ants, and myself, say Amen :-)
Spot on Pamela. We don’t need to try to be like someone else. We
Just need to be who we are in Christ, have a desire to do what God created us for and we will be happy. What we have been created for, our gift, will
always make room for us in the Body of Christ. ❤️
Love you Uncle Sam!
Thanks again for another beautiful story.
Very nice. Say hi to Vinney! My maternal grandmother’s favorite flower. We had rows of them many places near the tar-papered 1880’s homestead cabin that my grandfather had built for her. I lived there almost seven years as a toddler. Mostly pink, but she had a few white ones, too, I think.