It's the Little Things

I have so many experiences and stories to tell about my time spent at T Bar M Sports Camps. This will be but the first of many accounts of this blessed place in my life. The second summer I coached at T Bar M, I was placed in a cabin called “Bug Tussle” with two other lovely ladies. Jokes began to develop about the three shortest girl coaches being put in such a well-named cabin. The jests came more so after the first week’s age groups were assigned. Bug Tussle was to be a temporary home to twelve 6 to 7 year olds, the youngest age group allowed at Sports Camp, commonly nicknamed “The Babies”.

Now all my life, I have known what it felt like to be the shortest girl in the crowd, and for some of these girls, this was their first time to be away from the families over a week’s time and thrown into a crowd of 200 kids up to the ages of 12. From the beginning, they probably felt smaller than they actually were.

There’s no way to quantify this, but by the end of the week, those girls probably taught us more than we taught them. They were all so courageous on the ropes course, helpful during cabin clean-up, and thankful when they were served their meals. Most impacting was their insight during our morning Bible studies. Those times when I felt like what I was saying to them wasn’t sinking into them, they would chime in with faith-filled, God-honoring wisdom and knock me out of my seat.

I found it interesting that at the beginning of the summer, with all the short jokes connected to our cabin name, we established Proverbs 30:24-28 as our cabin verses. Solomon accounted that,

 “There are four things which are little on the earth, But they are exceedingly wise:

       The ants are a people not strong,

      Yet they prepare their food in the summer;

       The rock badgers are a feeble folk,

      Yet they make their homes in the crags;

       The locusts have no king,

      Yet they all advance in ranks;

       The spider skillfully grasps with its hands,

      And it is in kings’ palaces.”                                    ~Proverbs 30:24-28

All species of ants, from the Formicidae family, collect their energy source in various ways, from predatory, scavenging, or herbivores. One of my favorite methods of cultivation happens to be a more specialized practice. A symbiotic relationship exists between ants and aphids where environments permit. Aphids secrete a high-energy food source called honeydew as they feed on plant sap. The ants feed on this secretion while giving protection to the softer-bodied aphids from predators and “herd” them in such a way so that they found quality plants to consume. In the periods of migration, the ant colony would carry the aphids with them to the new location. I admire ants as the tiniest ranchers on the earth, with their aphids as their livestock. They could harvest from plants, other animals, even fungus. Obviously we don’t think of an ant being strong, but they certainly don’t seem to be in need of their nutrition, as they have the wisdom to prepare it on their own.

The rock badger, also known as the rock hyrax, seems to be the odd example out in this list of four creatures. The other three belong in the phylum, Arthropoda, while this creature is in the phylum Chordata. It’s also probably the less known of the four, especially under the label of “hyrax”.  A rock badger resembles a guinea pig which inhabits rock crevices to stay protected from predators. They tend to live in communities, and similar to prairie dogs, have members take turns standing guard and give alert to the others if a predator is sighted. Their wisdom on survival certainly gives them what they need, despite their feeble physical stature.

I imagine that a swarm of locusts would be a terrifying thing to behold. The truest account of the damage these creatures can inflict upon crops and natural vegetation can be observed best in Exodus 10 as God sent His eighth plague upon Egypt to urge the hard-hearted Pharaoh to let the Israelites go from their slavery. Exodus 10:14-15 says, “And the locusts went up over all the land of Egypt and rested on all the territory of Egypt. They were very severe; previously there had been no such locusts as they, nor shall there be such after them. For they covered the face of the whole earth, so that the land was darkened; and they ate every herb of the land and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left. So there remained nothing green on the trees or on the plants of the field throughout all the land of Egypt.” Generals dream of leading soldiers who fought like locust, wholly and undividedly set on their goal, working as a unit to overcome their enemy. Yet a swarm of migrating locust needs no leader. They have their God-given wisdom to swarm together in ranks, so that each individual may be filled and have the energy to carry on their journey together.

Now we come to the never quite-so-loved spider. I’ve met only a few people in my life who wouldn’t mind the chance to observing a spider on any given day. Most civilized people feel the need to dispose of its presence immediately. That’s what I love so much about this verse. Something so lowly and despised is even in the king’s palaces. He wasn’t invited by the king himself. I’m sure most royalty would react harshly toward a spider if it came too close to him. Yet, God gave spiders protection with their unique ability and wisdom to weave delicate, and still, strong webs that they can grasp with their hands. They can go undetected in the corners of their throne rooms building their own living that God provided for them. The God-given wisdom in a spider gives it the opportunity to be given a place in the king’s palaces despite its lowly position. It reminds me of when Jesus said,

“For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

~Luke 8:11

That was another lesson my Session 1 Bug Tussle campers taught me, humility. In their thrilling new experience of being away from their families, they were honestly humble. We were not the most athletic cabin, we didn’t win any of the cabin competitions, but our girls were having the time of their life, experiencing things they’ve never done before, like jumping off the Leap of Faith on the ropes course. I pray for them still, that God would continually build on their wisdom, faith, and humility.