Photo by Ankith Choudh on Unsplash                         

Don’t you just love honeybees???  Well, we love them for what they do for us not so much for their sting that’s for sure!  Do you realize that they pollinize 80 percent of all the trees, flowers, fruits and vegetables in the world!   GLORY BEE!  Without pollination, plants and trees would not be able to produce seeds or fruit!  Then where would we be?  In fact, they say bees pollinate more than 15 billion dollars worth of crops every year.  AND THIS POLINATION HAPPENS ‘IN SECRET’ OR WITHOUT THEIR KNOWLEDGE!  They are just flying around being bees, collecting pollen and nectar to feed their hive.  These honeybees are all female and have hairy legs!  Ladies take note.  Pollen sticks to these hairs.  They move this pollen to an area on their hind legs called ‘pollen baskets.’  These baskets contain more than 2 million grains of flower pollen!                                                                                            

If you are a bee watcher, you’ve probably noticed them hanging from their legs.  When they return to the hive, they mix this pollen with flower nectar to make ‘beebread’ that they use to feed their young and HONEY to feed us!  (and also to feed themselves).  Thank goodness they produce 2-3 times more honey than they need, so they can share some with us!  And once again, they are unaware of just how much they bless us by sharing their honey.

In Matthew 6:1-4, Jesus admonishes us to be like the bee!  He said when you give, give in secret and don’t announce it with trumpets like the hypocrites do.  Then your Father who sees what is done in secret, will reward you openly.’  I want to share a story that illustrates this scripture perfectly.

My wife and I attended a local family group with an 80 + year old pastor named Paul.  He tearfully related a story about his grandfather who was a pastor in the Dakotas.  He and his congregation scheduled a revival to be held in their church.  It was winter.  On the first day of the revival, a blizzard hit the Dakotas.  His grandfather debated whether he should go to the church anyway in case anyone would show up.  He trudged through a foot of snow in the blizzard, went into the church and lit a fire in the stove.  No one came.  He was about to leave when that ‘still small voice’, the Holy Spirit said to him in his mind, “preach your sermon.”  He obeyed this prompting and preached his sermon.  When he finished, he closed up the church and went home.  Several years later, a man in a suit and tie showed up at the church.  He approached Paul’s grandfather.  He said, “Do you have a mortgage on this church?”  He answered, yes.  The stranger said,” I want to pay it off.”  He continued to share his story.  He said, “you see, several years ago I was homeless and sought refuge in your church during a blizzard.  When you came in, I hid in the balcony.  Thank God you lit a fire.  I heard you preach and got saved!”   Paul’s grandfather was greatly rewarded ‘openly’ by God.  No more mortgage on the church and his story of obedience and what he did in secret will be passed on for many generations to come!!!

How many times have you said ‘good morning’ or ‘have a great day’ to someone or offered to pray for a stranger who looked depressed or sad?  Gave the waitress a big tip at a restaurant.  How often have you heard that still small voice say,” buy a certain person dinner or a cup of coffee at Starbucks; give some money to the person standing with a sign on the street corner?”  These are the things you do in secret that God will reward openly.

Like the bee, spreading pollen and making the honey we all enjoy, we have no idea how much of an effect we may have on someone by simply saying ‘have a good day’ or by being obedient to that small voice of the Holy Spirit and doing what he says to do as we go about living our lives.  You can never out-give the Lord any more than a honeybee can spread too much pollen or make too much honey.

And remember His promise, He will reward you ‘openly’ for what you do in secret.  

BEE A POLLEN SPREADER AND HONEY MAKER AND BLESS THE WORLD!

In the words of John Wesley, Cofounder of the Methodist Church:

“Do all the good you can,
By all the means you can,
In all the ways you can,
In all the places you can,
At all the times you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as ever you can.”