Lessons From a Honey Bee

Spring is in the air ... I can hear the dull drone of a worker honey bee; see, there she is - hovering and settling down a brief while upon the subtle-fresh-pink petals of the apple blossom or, irresistibly enticed by the sugary-sweet nectar, crawling into the inner recesses of a foxglove or the cone of a bluebell’s bowing head, hidden quietly in the shade. 

These restfully-busy creatures are intent upon one thing only: to collect the pollen and nectar needed for the well-being and prosperity of the hive. 

Brushing against the pollen-covered anthers of the plants, inadvertently collecting that precious powdery dust and carrying it with them, from flower to flower, they so happen to be about one of nature’s most vital tasks – uniting male cells (within the pollen) and female parts (the ovules within the pistils at the centre of the plant) to bring about a fertilised seed – what genius - the beginnings of a new plant. 

It is claimed Albert Einstein said, "If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, man would have only four years to live". Whether he did say this and whether he is overstating a fact I don’t know. Let’s just say, bees play a crucial role in the cross-pollination of much of our plant life. 
 I think it is fair to say that these busy honey bees have a conscious and unconscious task, one intentional, the other quite unintentional. 

We Christians set about our daily lives, to live, to work and hopefully to pray - to God. This is our conscious task. Sometimes we evangelise, again a conscious act. But what is it we unconsciously achieve? Like the honey bee, this is usually quite unknown to us. God’s designs arch high above the smallness of our human desires and plans.

Earlier this week I was discussing with some friends what heaven must be like. I said that perhaps one of the greatest pleasures of that place will be that we are blissfully conscious of the fruit of our lives - not what we can see now but what has actually been achieved by the laying down of our lives, by our daily surrender to Jesus Christ.  For many it will be shocking – brilliantly so. But now we are unaware of perhaps the greatest tasks God has given us – like the humble honey bee. 

See my blog 'Nothing Big, Perhaps Not' (18/1/12) for an example of what I mean.