Billy Graham Steps on an Anthill

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks on December 30, 2008

Last week I linked to the original Billy Graham Christmas Special from 1952. A young, charismatic Billy Graham stood in front of a fireplace and a Christmas tree, waving his finger and reading from the Bible. But he made one interesting analogy about ants that stuck out.

Skip ahead to 9:56 of the video to see it:

“You know one day I was walking along and I stepped on an anthill. And I thought to myself as I saw those dying ants, I wish I could go down and be just an ant for just a moment to talk to those ants and tell them that I didn’t mean to. That’s the way it was with God. God looked down over the battlements of heaven and God said, ‘How can I tell men that I’m a God of love, I’m a God of mercy, that I’m a God of long suffering, the only way I can do it is to become a man.’ And that’s exactly what happened, ladies and gentlemen: Jesus Christ became man.”

It’s admittedly a clunky way to explain it, but I like this analogy of how God tries to connect with us. The analogy breaks down under any serious scrutiny (God found many ways to communicate with people other than taking on human form: angels, burning bush, talking donkey, the Bible itself, the Holy Spirit, etc.) and the idea of God becoming a person so he could tell us why he stepped on us is a bit bizarre.

But the nugget Billy Graham is trying to get at is that God wanted to come face to face with us. While God has found ways to converse with humanity, it’s been fraught with problems (that whole ‘no one may see me and live’ thing for starters). But as a man, Jesus becomes an ambassador for us, a mediator (as Billy over-pronounces). Jesus has walked in our shoes and can sympathize with us.

In order to truly connect with someone, you have to get on their level. The point Billy Graham was trying to make is that’s what God did when Jesus was born in the manger. God stooped down to our level to connect with us.

Ants aside, it’s a powerful point.