The Church -- God's Superorganism
Ants are everywhere. They thrive in forests, fields, deserts, and cities all over the planet. Their secret to success is that they all live and work together in highly organized communities, some of which have many millions of members.
Ants have the largest brains of any insects, but that doesn’t mean a single ant on its own is all that smart. As individual ants leave their nest in search for food, they walk in what appear to be random paths, hoping to come across something to eat. When an individual ant finds a food source, the ant will take a bit of the food back to the nest, leaving a trail of pheromones behind them to mark the path. Over time, ants organize their search, optimizing the best and shortest path between the food source and the nest. As more ants follow the optimal path back and forth, they leave more and more pheromones, which in turn attract more and more ants, creating a reinforcing efficiency effect. Over time, older ants gather more experience about the environment surrounding their nests, which makes it easier for them to forage effectively.
Even though individual ants can get smarter over time as they learn more about their surrounding environment, the real ant intelligence [and strength] is in the collective. They are so united toward the common purpose of growth and reproduction that they behave like a “superorganism.”
The Church -- the Body of Christ -- is not simply an institution, but rather a living organism. When the Body Christ functions as God intends, we become, like the ants, a superorgansim. Yes, we can be frutiful and grow stronger and more "spiritually" intellegent on our own. but, also like the ants, our real strength, our real intellegence is in the collective.
So many reasons, as Scripture encourages us, to, "Look to the ant ... consider her ways!" (Proverbs 6:6)"For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another" (Romans 12:4-5, ESV).
"From whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love" (Ephesians 4:6, ESV).
Eudardo, Come and Find Juan Cruz!
When a young boy became separated from his father on the streets of a busy Argentinian city last month, a concerned pedestrian promptly came to attend to him. He asked him his name and his father’s name. He then hoisted the young man onto his shoulders and began crying out, “Eduardo, come and find Juan Cruz!”
It wasn’t long before all the diners and pedestrians in the busy square began chanting aloud with him, “Eduardo, come and find Jaun Cruz!”
Soon, even a street band took up the call, quickly turning the chant into a song, and playing along with all the concerned citizens, singing together, “Eduardo, come and find Juan Cruz!”
Panic turned to comfort, encouragement, and support. It turned into a collective mission, as the entire community banded together to reunite young Juan Cruz with his father.
And it worked! Dad heard the commotion, followed the sound of the chants, zeroed in on the location, and ran to gather his son into his arms.
Click here to watch the full video.
What is the Great Commission, what is our mission, if not to help lost souls to find their way back to their heavenly Father? To this end, the Christian Church must band together with the same passion, purpose, and collective mission as the diners and pedestrians who chanted, “Eduardo, come and find Jaun Cruz!”
What would happen if we united in solidarity with one another to pray for, and minister to, and witness to each other’s lost family members, neighbors, friends, even strangers, hoisting them up on our shoulders, so to speak, to give them a view of the Father? Calling the Father to come and find them! Praying together, with each other and for each other, “Father, come and find my brother! Joe’s neighbor! Sharon’s employer!”
Lord, give us, your Church, as much passion for the lost as that crowd had for little Juan Cruz to be reunited with his father.
“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” Luke 19:10, ESV).
“What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance” (Luke 15:4 - 7, ESV).
“Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest’” (Matthew 9:37, ESV).
"Bee" Devoted to One Another in Brotherly Love
"My dad has bees.Today I went to his house and he showed me all of the honey he had gotten from the hives. He took the lid off of a 5 gallon bucket full of honey and on top of the honey there were 3 little bees, struggling. They were covered in sticky honey and drowning. I asked him if we could help them and he said he was sure they wouldn't survive. Casualties of honey collection I suppose.
"I asked him again if we could at least get them out and kill them quickly, after all he was the one who taught me to put a suffering animal (or bug) out of its misery. He finally conceded and scooped the bees out of the bucket. He put them in an empty Chobani yogurt container and put the plastic container outside.
"Because he had disrupted the hive with the earlier honey collection, there were bees flying all over outside.
"We put the 3 little bees in the container on a bench and left them to their fate. My dad called me out a little while later to show me what was happening. These three little bees were surrounded by all of their sisters (all of the bees are females) and they were cleaning the sticky nearly dead bees, helping them to get all of the honey off of their bodies. We came back a short time later and there was only one little bee left in the container.
"She was still being tended to by her sisters.
"When it was time for me to leave we checked one last time and all three of the bees had been cleaned off enough to fly away and the container was empty."
*Beekeepers in Covert Township, Michigan captured the remarkable moment a few bees help another very sticky bee. Click here to view the video.
The post continues, "Those three little bees lived because they were surrounded by family and friends who would not give up on them, family and friends who refused to let them drown in their own stickiness and resolved to help until the last little bee could be set free." - Original author unknown
Ok, so bees may not be people, moved and motivated by love or affection or concern for one another, but they clearly have, imprinted in their DNA, an understanding of community -- what's good for the bee is good for the hive.
As such, this beautiful picture of care and rescue may be more about instinctively wanting to "waste not" the honey clinging to the dying bees, as much as it was about saving the bees themselves. However, the added benefit from their actions would be that the three endangered worker bees would be saved to continue their important labors for the hive. What's good for the bee IS good for the hive, and vice versa.
All explanation aside, this is still a remarkable picture of the care and concern each one of us ought have for our brothers and sisters in Christ. As believers and members of both the local body and the Body of Christ universal, we exist in a mutually valuable and symbiotic relationship with each other and the church at large. When one hurts, we all hurt. What's good for the bee-liever is good for the Body, and vice versa.
If nothing else, this beautiful picture from nature reminds us to "Bee" devoted to one another in brotherly love.
"Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor" (Romans 12:10, NASB).
"This makes for harmony among the members, so that all the members care for each other. If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it, and if one part is honored, all the parts are glad" (1 Corinthians 12:25-26, NLT).