The Beekeeper

 

[Jesus said] “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.” (John 16:12-15 ESV).

 

Last week Mary and I heard a knock at the door, knowing it was Kyle, we bid him to come in. I was in the back writing, but walked to the front room. He was standing looking out the French doors leading to the deck and the backyard as he said, “We’ve got a big problem.” Well, my attention was piqued, and he continued, “We have a hive of bees on the maple.” I looked and sure enough there was a football sized hive that had formed overnight on the tree nearest our deck. As you can see from the picture I’ve attached there were hundreds of honeybees swarming on the tree. While these bees are normally pretty docile, they will attack if they feel threatened. They definitely needed to be relocated. Knowing how important honey bees are to our fruit trees and flowers, Kyle contacted several people to see who might be qualified to take care of them.

 

Later that evening (around 9:30 pm), the beekeeper arrived as scheduled. He was dressed fully in his protective suit. As I watched I was amazed that he inspected the hive, determining how to best get all the bees with the queen. He placed a large container, which appeared to be made specifically for the task, directly under the hive and began to scoop as many as possible into the box with his hand. Once he was sure he had the queen, he shook the branches of the tree getting all the others to follow into the box. The whole process happened quickly and efficiently, though I’m sure the bees were not happy about it at first. After all, they were just trying to find a new home.

 

It dawned on me how like our lives this vignette was. We go through life “looking for our home” not realizing that our “beekeeper” (the Holy Spirit) will take us there. Often we find ourselves in places we simply don’t belong. And, some of those times we need a good shake into a box to be transported to a safe place we can continue to build our own hives. Ultimately, this same “beekeeper” will relocate us to a perfect, eternal home. We’ll never need to move from there. Until then, I was struck with how wonderful the provision of our heavenly Father is in our journey. Perhaps this is one of those times you’ve gotten yourself stuck in the wrong place and your world is shaking a bit. Relax, it is for your good (cf. Romans 8:28); and, he will get you to the right place soon enough (v. 12).