Ouch!
You know those nasty people that zip around, looking for trouble, ready to argue or fight at the drop of a hat, not content until they ruin someone’s day? Those are my bees. This gal erupted from the hive as soon as I took the lid off and started flying around butt first, stinger flapping in the breeze just looking for someone to biff. Into my glove she came hurdling and gave that atomic body drop her darndest – plunging her stinger through the glove and into my wrist.
The insulting thing is that I was trying to help them. I was trying to help them to build their colony and keep them healthy. And that’s the gratitude that I got.
However, I did not pour gas on the hive and lighter ‘er up.
This encounter made me think about how we often treat those who are trying to help us and those who are really on our team. Christians treat Christians in the worst of ways. We, who are supposed to be bearing one another’s burdens are fighting, arguing and gossiping about each other, just because –
1. Our pastor said something we didn’t like, so we’ll light up the church with our tongues
2. Someone said or did something not Christ-like to us, so we’ll completely write them off otherwise as a person.
3. We don’t feel that our platform or faith-niche is valued, so we’ll become critical and cynical about those around us.
4. Etc, Etc, Etc
If you have been saved by God’s infinite grace and mercy to you by trusting in His Son’s death on the cross for your forgiveness, then look around you – that person who is standing next to you (also a depraved sinner just like you), who has also been saved by grace through faith, is your teammate and brother. Yes, that even includes if he is from a different gospel-believing denomination than yours.
But there is a further analogy here. I could have decimated the whole hive out of anger. But I didn’t. And it wasn’t even reason that kept me from it. It was love.
I love those little bees that God has given to me. I love watching them do their work. I love the industry with which they take care of each other and the whole colony. They can’t comprehend that I am trying to help them, so they lash out in anger and fear at my disruption. And I still love them. They are my bees.
Jesus modelled this for us better than anyone ever could. I Peter 2:23-24 says:
When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds, you have been healed.
The God of the universe, incarnate, allowed himself to suffer at the hands of evil men. Think about it: He suffered cruelty at human hands for your sins and mine. He did not obliterate us by the same power that He created us, but rather used His deific power to love us, even unto the death of the cross. Then He calls us to be His brothers and share in His inheritance.
Meditate on this as, each day at work, at home, with our family, and with our friends, we purpose to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, and also love our neighbor as ourselves.
Gospel Rocks Ranch 