Tag: Bees

  • Two bees or not two bees?

    Thoughts on Psalm 119

    I snapped this shot in the backyard recently for no particular purpose. I didn’t realize there were two bees inside the dahlia flower. One is quite visible; the second is almost hidden by the first bee and the flower petals.

    Our backyard is popular with the bees. Usually, I see bumblebees like these, and occasionally a honeybee. There are also plenty of solitary bees. There are more than 50 bee species that live in BC, most of which are quite small, and I just don’t notice them.

    I might be related to Winnie the Pooh because when I see bees, I think of honey. Bumble bees don’t make honey the way honeybees do. They make far less, not enough to be harvestable; still, in my mind, a bee equals honey.

    Thinking of honey brought to mind a scripture passage.

    Oh how I love your law!

    It is my meditation all the day.

    Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies,

    for it is ever with me.

    I have more understanding than all my teachers,

    for your testimonies are my meditation.

    I understand more than the aged,

    for I keep your precepts.

    I hold back my feet from every evil way,

    in order to keep your word.

    I do not turn aside from your rules,

    for you have taught me.

    How sweet are your words to my taste,

    sweeter than honey to my mouth!

    Through your precepts I get understanding;

    therefore I hate every false way. Psalm 119:97-104 ESV

    Psalm 119 is devoted to praising the Law of God, its beauty and usefulness. 

    It’s an alphabetical acrostic poem, with its 176 verses grouped into 8 verse sections. The first letter (in Hebrew) of each section begins with a consecutive letter of the Hebrew alphabet: aleph, beth and so on. It’s a marvel of literary construction. It’s not the only alphabetic acrostic in the Psalms but is certainly the largest,

    More importantly, though, is its deep, resonant theme of the goodness of God and His Word. I wonder if we have the same appreciation for the Scriptures that the Psalmist did.

    I love reading the Word, but I confess I don’t always think of it as sweeter than honey. I can often find other things to read or fill my time with instead of the Scriptures.

    When I do read it, I sometimes neglect to consider it as a whole. It was written over 1500 years, on three continents in 3 languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek) by about 40 authors. Yet it presents an incredibly cohesive story.

    It’s a book that has survived many efforts to eradicate it and still remains the best-selling book in the world today. That doesn’t include the number of Bibles available as apps or online. It’s a trend that shows no sign of ending. In fact, in the US, the number of Bibles sold in 2025 doubled the sales of 2018. 

    Are you reading yours? Is it sweeter than honey? Are you applying what you read?

    Read the Word. Read the Word. Read the Word.

    Kevin

    SUMMARY

    Two bees hid in a backyard dahlia and got me thinking about honey and Psalm 119. It left me asking if I treasure God’s word as sweeter than honey, or just fill my time elsewhere.

    TAKEAWAY

    Is God’s word sweeter than honey to you, or do you turn to other things instead?

    Remember the Bible is one story, not scattered pieces, even though it took 1,500 years and about 40 authors to write.

    Are you reading your Bible? Are you applying what you read?

    #Dahlia #Bumblebee #ScriptureOfTheDay #BackyardGarden

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  • Nobody Told The Bees – Lessons in Obedience

    Yesterday, I was once again enjoying the busyness of the bumble bees at the lavender in the backyard. I was pondering the myth that bumble bees and honey bees shouldn’t be able to fly and wondered where that came from.

    I did some research, and according to one source, “The origins of the honey bee flight myth are hazy, but the most enduring version involves an aerodynamics engineer casually calculating that a bee’s weight-to-wing-area ratio made flight impossible. Though some accounts attribute the claim to scientists like Ludwig Prandtl or Jakob Ackeret, it likely stems from a misunderstood 1934 observation by the French zoologist Antoine Magnan, who applied fixed-wing flight equations to insect wings and concluded — incorrectly — that insect flight defied aerodynamic theory”.

    Of course, both bumble bees and honey bees can fly, as we well know. Apparently, nobody told God that they couldn’t fly and certainly no one told the bees.

    That took me down the rabbit hole of thinking about how we come up with reasons we can’t do things that God asks of us.

    I thought of Moses standing beside the burning bush. He had plenty of excuses.

    But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” Exodus 3:10

    Then Moses said to God, “Behold, I am about to come to the sons of Israel, and I will say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you.’ And they will say to me, ‘What is His name?’ What shall I say to them?” Exodus 3:13

    Then Moses said to Yahweh, “Please, Lord, I have never been a man of words, neither recently nor in time past, nor since You have spoken to Your slave; for I am one with a hard mouth and a hard tongue.” And Yahweh said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes him mute or deaf, or seeing or blind? Is it not I, Yahweh? So now, go, and I, even I, will be with your mouth and will instruct you what you shall speak.” But he said, “Please, Lord, send now the message by whomever You will.” Exodus 4:10-13

    Let’s make that more current, no burning bush. “Kevin, I want you to invite your neighbor to church”, saith the LORD.

    “Who me? You must be mistaken. I wouldn’t even know what to say.”

    “Yes, you! Did I stutter?”

    “You must be mistaken. Send someone else to ask them. Someone who has the gift of inviting.”

    Now, it might not be inviting that the Lord has called us to do, but all of us have something the Lord has told us to do that we fight Him on with excuses, pass the buck to others, or just plain pretend not to hear.

    The Lord knows our shortcomings as well as He knows that bees are perfectly capable of flight. If we have a shortcoming, He will provide what we need.

    For consider your calling, brothers, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may abolish the things that are, so that no flesh may boast before God. 1 Corinthians 1:26-29

    As someone once said (and I can’t find an accurate attribution), “God doesn’t call the equipped; He equips the called.”

    Obedience when we know it’s our gifting is easy. When we’re not certain, or worse yet, convinced we can’t do what God asks, it’s even harder. Still, if God has called us to it, it’s for a reason.

    It’s time we traded our excuses for obedience. God knows what He is doing, even when we think He’s wrong. Maybe I’ll just go talk to that neighbor today.

    Hallelu Yah (Praise God)

    Be blessed

    Kevin

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