Wisdom of the Swarm

On Saturday night, Hugh Thompson facilitated a discussion with a group of us in our church. After tucking into some chilli we were soon passing the microphone around unpacking some Bible verses together. We looked at, among other things, the ants from Proverbs.

Wisdom of the Swarm was just one his sub-headings. ‘Ants are creatures of little strength, yet they store up their food in the summer;’ (Proverbs 30:25). Why do they do this when they ‘have no ruler’ (Proverbs 6:6)? Just like ‘the locusts that have no king yet advances together in ranks’ (Proverbs 30:27). How do these creatures work together in unity?



Hugh described a video like this one. He then explained that just as the individual synapses communicate chemically in the brain so ants communicate by pheromones and act like one collective mind. In the same way we corporately as the church have ‘the mind of Christ’ as we hear God together and operate as his body.

On the way home we were still discussing this principle of synergy - if we all work together we can achieve things that we could never achieve separately.

Hugh quoted the lyrics of RyanDan’s High:

If we all work together
We would be stronger
If we all open our eyes
We could see further
If we all stand tall enough no one can beat us
If we all hold our hands up high we can carry the world.

So this week I’ve been playing this song on Spotify - my new music streaming application - while watching videos, like the one above, full screen on YouTube. Why not try it? If you haven’t yet got Spotify just can now just click on the link to sign up for the free version.