Honey Bees & Yellow Jackets

I normally do not personify animals. Bambi isn’t real and if he were, he and Thumper could not talk to each other. I like animals, but animals, even our pets, are not people. I do, however, believe that some animals have wonderful characteristics and can teach us lessons about life. The Bible has many examples of these lessons.

Personally, I like honey bees. When I was a small child I would pick them up and hold them in the closed palm of my hand. I enjoyed this activity until I must have squeezed one a little too hard and was stung. I complained to my mother and being the practical woman she was, she simply said, “Well, don’t pick them up then.” It was only after she explained to me that a honey bee dies after it stings you that I understood why she appeared more sympathetic toward the bee than her son.

Unlike a nasty yellow jacket, which seems to go out of its way to sting someone for the shear joy, it costs a honey bee everything to do injury to another. Some people are more like yellow jackets than honey bees. They seem to enjoy hurting other people. They assume that they can injure others with impunity. But, unlike the yellow jacket, we cannot injure another and fly away, not being held accountable. The Creator holds each of us accountable for all that we do and all of us would be better served if we thought before we stung. Otherwise there may be a large fly swatter in our future.