
At one point in my past, I worked for my friends who are beekeepers. Their specialty is not honey as you might suppose, (although they do produce and sell delicious honey) but rather queen bees. If you know anything about bee hives you know that in order to have a happy, healthy, thriving hive, you need to have a healthy queen. This is where my friends come in, they specially raise queens to sell to other beekeepers.

My job was to go around and collect the newly ready queens from small hives that they hatched into. It was so interesting how each of these small hives had their own personality. I would know which one was likely to be a little cranky, which one was more mellow etc. However, they all had something in common, if the hive was missing a queen for more than a few days they would be very upset! The hive would be so agitated that I almost knew right away that looking for a queen would be futile.

After I became a mother, I began to see some similarities between my home and the beehives. If I would have to be gone for a length of time doing errands or something, my kids would not do as well as when I was home. The younger ones would become cranky and the older ones would be naughty, trying to get away with things that I didn’t allow!

I have been on this mothering journey for over 18 years now and it hasn’t changed. My little ones come to me regularly during the day for a quick hug or snuggle and even my 18 year old checks in at least once a day.
The other things my kids have in common with the bees is the “humming.” As long as things are going well in my home, you can hear this kind of low level buzz as kids hum or sing as they do their schoolwork, chores, or play. Of course, things are not perfect and frequently there will be an outburst as someone infringes on someone else’s rights, but for the most part things buzz along fine.

So I was thinking what the take away from all of this is for us as adult Christ followers. I think the question for us would be: how often are we checking in with Jesus during our day. Would we be more happy, calm and content if just like my children we were regularly going to Him with all the cares that come up in our day? Honestly, sometimes I simply go so fast through my day that the thought never enters my head to include Jesus in a decision I have to make or ask Him for help with a difficult task.

So this week as I go about my day to day life, I am going to remember the bees and try to receive peace and calm from Jesus. And just maybe, like my kids, I will find myself humming through my tasks.
“Glory in His holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice. Seek out the Lord and His strength; seek His face always.” I Chronicles 16:10-11