The Church Mouse: Busy as a Bee
The Church Mouse: Busy as a Bee
“Though I am poor and in need, the Lord has me in mind; you are my help and my saviour.” – Psalms 40:17
My dad told this story. We have all heard the old saying, “busy as a bee.” Well this is couple of little stories about busy bees.
When my dad was a young teen he and his father found an old half dead tree on the hill behind our barn that had a beehive in it.
My Grandfather decided they would take the bee smoker and get some if the honey out of the tree.
They got about 2 gallons or more honey. They had in in a metal bucket. They carried to back down to the barn which was a good 1/4 mile from the tree. Granddad sat the bucket on the milk stand and covered it with a piece of cloth; while they got ready to do the afternoon milking. Dad said it was a windy day and the wind blew the hanky off the bucket.
When they went to get the honey after milking that evening there was a swarm of bees around it. And much to there surprise about 3/4 of the honey they had collected was gone. The bees it seems found it and we’re carrying it back to their hive. Granddad watch this and said he knew that bees would clean the hive frames. But he didn’t realize they would go to that length to get the honey back. These bees were busy for sure.
This is another story about bees.
I went to my dad’s and he showed me all of the honey he had gotten from his hives. He took the lid off of a 5 gallon bucket full of honey and on top of the honey there were 3 little bees, struggling. They were covered in sticky honey and drowning. I asked him if we could help them and he said he was pretty sure they wouldn’t survive. They were casualties of honey collection, He stated, matter of factly.
I asked him again if we could at least get them out and kill them quickly, after all he was the one who taught me to put a suffering animal (or bug) out of its misery. He finally conceded and we scooped the bees out of the bucket. He put them in an empty cup and put the cup outside, on a small bench near the bee hives.
Because he had disrupted the hives with the earlier honey collection, there were bees flying all over outside. We left 3 little bees in the container to their fate.
My dad called me outside about an hour later, to show me what was happening. These three little bees were surrounded by all of their friend bees and they were cleaning the sticky nearly dead bees, helping them to get all of the honey off of their bodies. We came back a short time later and there was only one little bee left in the container. She was still being tended to by her friends. When it was time for me to leave I checked the cup one last time and all three of the bees had been cleaned off enough to fly away, the container was empty.
We could all learn a thing or two from these bees. These bees are Gods creations, just like we are. Those three little bees lived because they were surrounded by family and friends who would not give up on them, family and friends who refused to let them drown in their own stickiness(sin) and resolved to help until the last little bee could be set free. We as Christians should be just like these bees. Busy helping others to learn about Jesus. After all Jesus gave us the command “to love one another.”
Bee Sisters.
Bee Peers.
Bee Teammates.
Bee loving.
Bee forgiving.
Bee committed to leading others to Christ.
Father, we thank you for the blessings you give us even when we do not deserve it. Father help us to be like the bees and to kind and loving to everyone we come in contact with. So we came lead them to you and eternal life. Help us to fulfill you command to love one another. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen
the Church Mouse
Work hard; Pray harder!
