Monday 3 June 2019

Dung beetles and humour

Someone in the Post Office has a sense of humour because 1st class stamps celebrating Dad's Army have been issued to coincide with what might have been Brexit.


Our politics seem jammed in ways that maximise division and breed intolerance. Media of all sorts, mainstream or social, have become unsocial. Genuine leaders receive death threats and are at risk of harm. Officers of state across the world throw insults at each other, and will do anything to gain attention.

We might well feel like calling all of them 'stupid boys', and want to encourage each other 'not to panic'. We could shrug our shoulders, sit back and treat the whole thing as an international soap opera, or give up all together.

Or we could take a lesson from an apparently daft insect. You couldn't make him up! He's one of nature's jokes. Job description: collect refuse, roll it backwards [how do they see where they're going?] until you get home, use these balls for supplies of energy and nutrients which nurture your offspring. And by fulfilling these instructions you'll leave the place tidier and cleaner!

www.shamwari.com

These humble beetles show great persistence, and they get the job done against all the odds. We can learn from them to refuse truth-tiredness, and find the energy of hearts set aflame by God's Spirit. The book of Proverbs 6.6 invites us to 'Go to the ant, you lazybones; consider its ways, and be wise'. Nature can teach us a few tricks.

And it's no joke because hate and fake are stalking our planet. Let's not forget that they are transient threats to eternal truth, and the power of love.