Mother Markham’s Ant Story

I was a young man when Mother Mattie Markham was asked to speak at a funeral service. This story has stuck with me through the years and I have used it many times at funerals and in sermons.

 Mo. Markham recounted that in her youth her family lived in an area of Louisiana that experienced floods periodically. The homes were built on stilts to accommodate the floods. During one particular flood incident the water rose almost to the level of the family porch. The family was large so all the children were seated on the porch when someone noticed what appeared to be a tree stump in the middle of the yard. No one could remember a stump being there so her mother was called to come and look. Mo. Markham’s mother after looking replied to the children that she hadn't’t recalled seeing a tree stump in the middle of the yard either, but she advised everyone not to worry, soon the water would rescind and everyone could then see if what they saw was really a stump.

 Sure enough, the water did go down and when the level was almost to the ground, the entire family ran to the stump and found not a tree stump but a mound of ants that had survived the flood by sticking together.

Immediately, the mound began to disassemble and ants began to run in a thousand directions. The children cried out to their mother, “Mama, should we kill the ants, they are getting away.” Her mother replied, “No, the ants have taught us all a lesson today. If we stick together as a family like the ants, we can make it through anything.”

 Years after Mother Markham told this story upon reflection, I thought about that incident many times. Some of the ants were red, some were brown, but that did not stop them from sticking together. Some had four legs, others eight, but that did not deter them from sticking together. Some were on the bottom, others in the middle, and still others on the top. But all survived because they stuck together.  

To this day, I can still hear Mother Markham exhorting her family, the church, and the community to “stick together”. 

Pastor Joseph A. Peay

email:pastorpeay@aol.com