Black headed sugar ant with pupa. Modified photo from Benjamint444 (CC Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license)

Recently I watched an amazing YouTube video of how carpenter ants hatch out of their cocoons. It provides a unique object lesson from nature. But first, here is a little background information about how ants undergo complete metamorphosis.

Ants start out as eggs laid by a colony’s queen. The eggs hatch into larvae, which are worm-like in appearance and are reliant on adult workers to regurgitate food from their crop (social stomach) to them to eat. Once the larvae finish growing, in many species they spin cocoons out of silk around them to undergo the transformation from a worm-like form to an adult. This parallels how a caterpillar spins a cocoon to transform into a moth. That process is truly incredible because it involves nearly the complete breakdown of all the body’s tissues and reconstruction of those cells into a completely different structure of tissues and new body organs (like legs, antennae, an exoskeleton, tracheae, a crop, compound eyes, and if a new queen or drone, wings and reproductive parts).

When someone says the word, “hatching,” we typically think of a trapped animal working hard to break out of its egg (like a chick using its egg tooth break through the shell) or, in the case of a butterfly for example, its cocoon. But this is apparently not how it happens for ants. Fascinatingly, the trapped ant must fully rely on its sister workers (or queen in case it is one of the first to hatch in a new colony) to gnaw through the tough silk cocoon fibers, create a slit, enlarge the opening, and pull the new adult ant out of its cocoon! The video embedded below shows this amazing process:

Imagine being that new ant that is being hatched. You can’t do anything except signal with a pheromone that you are ready to come out. You watch as the coffin your former version of yourself made for you is slowly pried open. Imagine feeling for the first time your sister’s gentle touch as she licks the silky gunk off of your head. Gradually, with painstaking effort, you watch the slit in the cocoon get longer and wider. Now your legs are being licked (does it tickle?). The casing finally is opened up enough and you wince a bit as your sister diligently extracts you, pulling you out of the cocoon. Then, the gunk around your legs that bind them together is pried off, and at last, you are free. Hallelujah!

You know, this all got me thinking… There is a parallel here with how a Christian is born-again spiritually. When we as humans are born, we are helpless infants. A we grow, we become like larvae—selfish little worms that just want to eat, sleep, and have our desires met. Without the spirit of Christ abiding in us, we just become bigger selfish creatures. Some people sadly never leave this stage of spirituality. Their only concern is for themselves, getting their way, and exalting themselves in the eyes of others. Little do they realize their true condition. However, some people at a certain point in their lives begin to feel the influence of the spirit of God. They recognize that they are selfish worms and desire a change for the better. They respond to God’s call, and humbly repent (spin their cocoon), die to self, and surrender their lives to their Creator. And then, something marvelous happens, God transforms them from the inside out, remakes them spiritually, giving them a new heart and mind. Just like the new ant cannot come out of its cocoon by itself or remove the gunk off itself, the new believer cannot be transformed into God’s image or be cleansed from sin by their own works. They have to be born again! Just like the new ant is born again.

But there is a second parallel as well, one that is even more tangible, yet experienced by very few humans so far. In order to transform into an adult, the larvae must basically disintegrate into particles (individual cells) so that new tissues and new organs can form. In large part, it goes through a death-like experience where it is unconscious, then finds itself alive again in a new form with a new body and capabilities it could only dream of as a larva. Well, in the same way, the faithful Christian who commits their very life to their Creator at death, trusting in His promise of resurrection, dies and break down into very small particles (dust). Unconscious, they sleep the sleep of death. But on that great resurrection morning, God miraculously recreates them with perfect, immortal, incorruptible bodies, restores their consciousness and character, and angels break open their coffins and the glorious light illuminates their new eyes as they see perfectly for the first time! Elated, angels help them up and they wing their way to their Creator to joyfully serve their God and Savior forever. The Spirit of God fills their hearts and they excitedly start sharing the selfless love of the Creator with every creature they meet in God’s Kingdom.