We’re here just going about our
business when Jeff, our pest control guy, comes in during his quarterly
maintenance visit and says, “I think you’d better come out here.”
It’s a statement that strikes dread in the
heart of anyone who’s been through as many pest control storms as we have
involving a million ants and nearly as many other kinds of critters. Jeff is
like a member of the family having guided us safely through these troubled
waters.
We followed him to the side of
the house and he pointed. “Looks like you have bees in your walls.” I followed
his finger to honey bees cueing up to slide through a small gap between the
brick and the siding.
“We can’t kill bees. You’re going
to have to hire an extractor.”
We understood, having read that
bees, essential to agriculture, are in decline, so we wanted to do the right
thing.
Let me dispel the idea that an
extractor does the work in exchange for bees. No one does that. You have to
HIRE an extractor.
We did a little research and
located an expert, Rodney, who after his inspection, determined we had around
25,000 bees that'd made their way into the boxing of our house.
2-5-0-0-0.
A lot of bees.
It took all one morning, but we
are now bee free, and Rodney has a queen for a new hive at his place one county
over.
Albert Einstein once said, “If
the bee disappeared off the face of the earth, man would only have four years
left to live.” Someone else has said we should thank the bees for one-third of
our diet.
We buy produce, eat, and enjoy. We
delight in the beauty of a garden.
And we either don’t know or we forget
that we owe the bounty to an invertebrate animal with a winged segmented hairy body, which sucks nectar and gathers pollen.
We don’t remember that every
spring they’re buzzing around out there preparing our next meal.
Entomologist May Berenbaum states,
“Pollinators are what ecologists call keystone species. You know how an arch
has a keystone. It's the one stone that keeps the two halves of the arch
together. [...] If you remove the keystone, the whole arch collapses.”
Bees are a keystone species in
the physical realm.
All this got me thinking that in
the spiritual realm, there’s only One who can keep our halves together, who can
keep us from collapsing.
“While they were eating, Jesus
took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his
disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body” (Matthew 26:26).
Jesus became the bread of life for
us. And sometimes we forget the cost.
We forget the Via Dolorosa and
the crown of thorns and the pierced side. We forget the cross and lose touch
with His work on our behalf.
So much more than the bees give
us food for our physical bodies, He came to give us life in our souls, and
without Him, we implode. Even though we didn't deserve it, He came for us.
So, God, increase our thankful
remembrances for all you’ve done through Jesus.
The undulating buzz of bees in
the house has diminished now, but the hum of God’s spirit faithfully continues.