Be the Bee

My Dad is a bee keeper in his “retirement.” He has taught me a great deal about honey bees and how they function.

Each bee has a defined identity and role in the colony. There are drones, workers, and a queen. They all work together and each does its part. If the colony is working together in balance they will thrive.  If they are out of balance or don’t do the job of their identity, however, the colony will die.

He also showed me that an individual honey bee isn’t really “alive,” but rather all the bees together as a whole unified colony are alive! This blew my mind. If a bee flies away from the colony it will die alone.

I started thinking how amazing and unique bees are compared to “independent” humans, and then I stopped and realized there is much to be learned from the bees. What child can survive without a mother and a father? What teenager can grow, mature, and be launched into the world to start their own family without the incredible support of parents? How healthy is anyone without friends and family? Would we die without them? Moreover, if I need them, don’t they also need me? What is my part in our interconnectedness? This makes us all very important and interdependent… maybe we are more like bees than I thought!

In Scripture we are told over and over that we ARE the Body of Christ. Like a body, Christ cannot function with just one Christ-follower. Christ also has given the Holy Spirit to give each person a gift(s) to serve the whole body like parts. So often today in our independence-focused-world we forget how essential and needed each person is and how much we actually need each other. Again I thought, maybe we are more like bees!

So I say don’t just be yourself, Be the Bee!
Recognize your unique identity in Christ and how important you are… not individualistically but for His whole Body!
Operate with a mindset to live interdependently and care for others in your unique gifting – they need you and you need them. It’s the way God made us.