One morning last week, Olivia and I were walking around my Gran’s garden when I stopped to admire the beautiful pink blossoms on the Ornamental Plum Tree (Prunus cerasifera). As we stood and admired the myriad of pale pink blooms, I was pointing out the hive of activity, to Livvy, as the many bees danced and pranced from blossom to blossom collecting pollen. It was such a pleasant experience to watch the bees at their work, it somehow heralded the hope of Spring in my heart.
Bees are truly astounding creatures, not only do they play a vitally important role in our ecosystem – the Lord made bees for a very special purpose, more than just pollinating flowers, which helps us grow crops so we can have something to eat – we can also learn a lot from them about being better members not only in our own families and churches, but in the world. They offer us special insight into God’s nature and what He wants from us.
Here’s an interesting fact about bees, thanks Google, I bow to your superior knowledge!
Did you know that honeybees will fly as far as 13 kilometres in search of nectar? Apparently, it’s true. But here’s the more fascinating fact, whenever they find what they are looking for, no matter where they find it, they will turn right around and make a “beeline” back to their hive so that all the bees can join in the good news and go get some nectar. You see, bees like to share good news with each other. And they don’t like to waste time doing it. When they get back to the hive, they start doing an amazing little dance routine that tells all the other bees where they found the nectar. You’ll never find a honeybee saying, “I am not telling anyone else about this! I’m just going to keep it for myself.” And you know what? Christians shouldn’t say that about the good news either! The gospel of Jesus is something very sweet. And the natural, loving response to Jesus’ offer of grace isn’t to keep it all to ourselves.
When we taste the goodness of the Lord, we should want to share it with the rest of our hive. Bees love to share the good news, and so should we! The prophet Isaiah put it like this:
“1The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me, for the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted and to proclaim that captives will be released and prisoners will be freed.” (Isaiah 61:1NLT)
Here’s another amazing fact that I stumbled across as I was reading up about bees, that relates quite nicely. Most bees spend almost all of their time feeding other bees, rather than themselves. And not only will you find a bee always ready to feed another bee, they’ll even feed bees from another colony. This is why scientists call bees a social insect. They like to interact and “bee” with one another; mutual feeding seems to be a part of that special relationship.
This is a great example for us as God’s people. Not only do we need to help other people in our “hive” to hear and understand and be encouraged by the good news, we also need to serve them. Of course, worker bees first have to feed themselves before they have the energy to feed others. Likewise, we need to read our Bibles and pray before we serve others. We first have to receive something from Jesus before we can give it to others. You’ve heard me say it many times before, we serve out of the overflow of what God is doing in our own lives. Jesus always makes our cups overflow so that others also might be nourished.
“5 You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies. You honour me by anointing my head with oil. My cup overflows with blessings.” (Psalm 23:5NLT)
At a time in world history when so many people are so depleted by current negative circumstances, let’s do our part as love filled, life givers to not add to the cauldron of negativity and pessimism, but rather seek to live to serve other people and share the good news. It’s time that we start sharing the amazing testimonies of what God is doing through us and for us at this difficult time, that we might feed one another and build one another up.
Yours in Christ’s service,
Calven
Beee-autiful… Beee a blessing
That was so beautifully written Calven. Such an inspiring and uplifting message…Thank you!
We can learn so much from the finer details of God’s Creation whilst knowing that we are integral to its design. God bless!
Thank you Calven, so thoughtful and powerful. Our biggest difficulty and greatest privilege – something the bees don’t have – is we have free will. We can choose not to follow God’s purpose for our lives. How wonderful it is when we choose Jesus. Our hearts explode with a new and brilliant passion and relationship, something no bee can experience.