In Alaska, two bright orange salmonberries fall to the ground near their parent plant. A few feet away, a whole bush of berries gets demolished by a hungry bear. Which berry seeds have the best chance of growing into new plants? Two scientists studying the Tongass National Forest say the bear-eaten berries will probably reproduce best. Bears can probably eat more than 100,000 berries in an hour. When they drop their seeds, they drop them in scat. That’s perfect berry fertilizer. Because of the bears, the scientists find all kinds of berries in Southeast Alaska—and not just in a few spots. Salmonberries, high bush cranberries, soapberries, blueberries, and devil’s club berries have spread all over the forest.

We know we can credit bears for the huge amounts of tasty berries in the forest. But what about the fish that feed the bears? Salmon dependably migrate through Alaska. That food supply means Alaska has a lot of bears. Places on the American east and west coasts don’t get reliable salmon runs. Those places don’t have large numbers of bears either. For those places, losing salmon meant losing bears. And that could mean losing berries.

Let’s not forget the littlest contributors to berry growth: rodents. Rodents find and bury bear scat just under the soil. They literally plant berry seeds! The rodents lose track of some of their burying spots. The forgotten seeds grow into new plants. In the forest, no jobs are unimportant—not even the little ones.

God designed animals to work together in nature. He designed His people to work together too. He compares His people to the parts of His body. (Read about Christ’s body in 1 Corinthians 12.) Some have jobs that look little. But all are very important to His work in the world.