Better Together: A Devotional on Community from Nature
Have you ever heard someone say, “It takes a village”?
This saying usually refers to raising children and means that it takes many people—parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, friends, teachers, and pastors—to help children grow up and learn. It’s a picture of the power of community.
It may surprise you to think of the insects this way, but termites are another great example of a community working together.
A Colony That Works as One
A group of termites is called a colony. Drywood termites that live only in wood can have a few thousand termites in their colony. Subterranean termites that live in the soil can have hundreds of thousands, to even one million termites. That’s a massive village!
Like ants, a termite colony has distinct roles. There are reproductives, the future kings and queens of new colonies. Workers build the termite mound and tend to the queen. Soldiers defend the colony against intruders. And secondary reproductives serve as a backup if the queen or king dies, ensuring the colony can continue to grow.
These special roles ensure the termites stay safe, grow their colony, and continue ongoing building projects. Every single termite matters. Every role counts. And when each one does its part, the whole colony thrives.
What This Means for Us
God designed termites to show us something powerful: we are better together. No single termite builds the mound alone. No single termite defends the colony alone. It is the community, each member doing their unique part, that makes the whole thing work.
The same is true for us. God never designed us to do life alone. He placed us in families, churches, and communities so that we could build something together that none of us could build on our own.
We see this throughout Scripture. When Moses and the Israelites constructed the tabernacle, God didn’t just give Moses the vision. He filled Bezalel with His Spirit, equipping him with wisdom, understanding, and skill to do the work. One person had the vision. Another had the craft. Together, they built something that honored God.
“I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills.” Exodus 31:3
Your community needs what God has placed in you. And you need what God has placed in them.
In His Word
“Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up!” Ecclesiastes 4: 9-10 ESV
God designed us to live and labor alongside one another. When we show up consistently for our community, we create the kind of safety net that catches people when life gets hard. And when we fall, we discover that God’s design was never for us to get back up on our own.
In Your Life
What unique gift or skill has God placed in you that your community, your family, church, or friendships, needs right now?
We Recommend
If this devotional resonated with you, check out Made to Marvel by Eryn Lynum for more discoveries about God’s incredible design in the natural world and what it reveals about Him.
Interested in more about community? Learn how to build a stronger community in this post.
Let’s Connect
Eryn Lynum is a certified master naturalist with a degree in biblical studies and systematic theology. She hosts Nat Theo: Nature Lessons Rooted in the Bible, which is regularly ranked as a Top Ten podcast in multiple categories on Apple Podcasts, and is the author of five books. She has four children and lives in Colorado with her family.
