Joe and Haley were planning a surprise picnic for the kids. Joe had big bags of potato chips, hot dogs, buns, and cookies. Haley made three gallons of lemonade! Haley slopped the lemonade all over the kitchen counter and onto the floor, and she did not clean it up very well. The lemonade looked so good that Haley poured herself a glass and took it to her room that evening. As she was walking into her room she tripped over Daniel, her pet raccoon! Lemonade went flying everywhere, even onto her bed and onto her pillow! Haley was too tired to worry about it, so she just went to bed.
When Haley woke up the next morning there were ants everywhere! There were ants on the floor of her room, there were ants on her bed, there were ants on her pillow, and there were ants crawling in her hair! Haley screamed and jumped up and down while she tried to get all the ants off her! Joe heard her screaming, but he was so used to it that he did not even bother to go and find out what she was screaming about!
Joe was in for a surprise when he got to the kitchen! There were ants everywhere! There were ants on the floor, ants on the counter, ants on the table, and even ants on the ceiling! Some of the ants dropped off the ceiling and landed on Joe’s head! He dropped one of his crutches so that he could try to get the ants out of his hair! When Joe picked up his crutch, there were ants on it, but he did not notice. The ants crawled up the crutch and into Joe’s shirt! Now Joe was the one yelling and trying to get the ants out of his shirt! Haley came running to see what was going on, and Joe looked so funny that she started to laugh! Haley was laughing so hard that she fell onto the floor and was rolling on the floor laughing. Now the ants got inside Haley’s clothes, and she screamed, jumped to her feet, ran into the shower, turned on the water, and took a shower with her clothes on! Joe grabbed a couple boxes of cereal and milk, and he and Haley had breakfast at the picnic table outside.
After breakfast, Haley cleaned the kitchen and got most of the ants out of the kitchen just in time for the kids to arrive. Haley met the kids at the bus and told them about the picnic. They loaded all the food and supplies onto the 4-wheeler and Joe drove the 4-wheeler to the picnic spot. Haley and the kids followed Joe down the trail and got to the picnic spot without any major accidents! Joe built a small fire, and soon they were all roasting hot dogs and enjoying their picnic lunch!
They had several blankets spread on the ground so that all the kids had a place to sit and eat. They were having a good time eating, laughing, and playing. A lot of crumbs were spilled and some lemonade spilled, but who cared? It was a picnic!
Then it happened…there were ants everywhere! There were ants on all the blankets, and there were ants on the kids! The kids screamed and ran to the river and jumped into the water! Joe did not have any ants on himself because he had not been sitting on the blankets. While the kids were in the river, Joe shook the blankets and got the crumbs and ants off the blankets. He could not get the spilled lemonade off the blankets, so he just folded the blankets and put them on the 4-wheeler. Joe had one more blanket that had not been used, so he spread that one on the ground in a different place and all the kids sat on that blanket when they were done swimming in the river.
While they were on the blanket, Joe taught the kids a little about ants and a little bit more about God.
Ants are incredible insects. Just like the honeybees, only the females come out and do the gathering. Ants are constantly gathering food; they know that the difficult days of winter will come soon, and they need food to carry them through that time. If there is any food laying on the ground or sweet liquids, many ants will come to take the food to their home in the ground! Ants are incredibly strong; they can lift 50 times their own weight and pull up to 100 times their own weight! If humans were that strong, a person that weighted 100 pounds could lift 5,000 pounds and they could pull 10,000 pounds!
In the Bible in Proverbs 6:6-8 it says:
Take a lesson from the ants, you lazybones. Learn from their ways and become wise! Though they have no prince or governor or ruler to make them work, they labor hard all summer, gathering food for the winter.
These Bible verses tell us that we should learn from the ants and not be lazy. The ants spend all their time preparing for winter. Believers are also to spend their time preparing for a time that is coming. After this life on earth is over, believers are going to spend eternity in heaven with God, and we need to get ready.
In the Bible in Romans 8:28-29 it says:
And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose for them. For God knew His people in advance, and He chose them to become like His Son, so that His Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.
After accepting Jesus Christ as our Savior, we are not to be lazy while we are on earth but be busy like the ants. We are to spend our days getting ready for heaven by becoming more like Jesus. We can do this by spending time reading and learning the Bible, paying attention what we are taught at Church, praying, doing what God’s Word says, obeying parents, being kind, telling others about Jesus, and so much more! The Bible verses above say that God will use everything in our life to help make us more like Jesus, but we must be willing to put some effort into it and not be lazy.
Joe reminded that kids that no one gets into heaven by doing good works. The only way to get to heaven is by believing that Jesus is the Son of God, that He came to earth and died for our sins and rose from the dead. Along with believing, we must ask Jesus to forgive our sins and come into our life. After Jesus is in our life, we are on the way to heaven because of what Jesus has done for us! Living for Jesus and becoming more like Jesus prepares us for living in heaven but does not get us to heaven. Only Jesus can get us into heaven!