Bees and Boats
Just recently we have had a problem with bees at our house. A colony of bees had taken up residence in our bird house. I knew they were there because I could see them going in and out through the little hole at the front.
We did not want them in our back garden, we wanted them getting rid of.
I telephoned the Council Environmental Health department and they gave me the telephone number of the "Bee man"
I explained the situation to the "Bee man" on the telephone and he suggested one solution was to spray some insecticide into the bird box and seal the hole up.
I was reluctant to kill all the bees when the only harm they were doing was being in the wrong place.
Perhaps the "Bee man" was losing patience with me because he asked me what I wanted him to do about the bees. I said I would just like him to take them away, and put them somewhere else where they could carry on living. He agreed and the following evening when they had all "gone to bed" he sealed the bird box up, unscrewed it from the wall, and drove with it to the other side of the town where I live, where he was going to fasten the bird house to a tree in his garden, and the bees could carry on doing what bees do.
The following day I noticed one or two bees around the place where the bird house had been. I scared them off with a broom however through the next few days bees kept reappearing not realising that they had been moved to a new area. I think they have got the idea now as I haven't seen any bees for a few days.
This story has parallels with God's relationship with us.
We are so much bother to him, with our sin that he could have decided to wipe us out.
He loves us so much that he has given us a new start in his kingdom. We often do what the bees did,
return to our old haunts where unlike the bees we will receive a warm welcome from our old friends.
So becoming a Christian means giving up the old and starting the new.
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come !" (2 Corinthians Chapter 5 verse 17)
In the 8th to10th Centuries Vikings invaded the British Isles. At first they came to plunder and then returned to their own counties.
Later when they decided to settle in this country, they set fire to their boats after landing.
If hardships had occurred, they may have been tempted to return to their own lands. They would have
been unable to return as they had burned their boats.
We need to "burn our boats", leave our old life behind.
The new life is much better.
The apostle Paul viewed his new life as a vast improvement on his old life, he wrote:-
"I consider it all [my past life] as mere refuse, so that I may gain Christ." (Philippians Chapter 3 verse 8)
Michael Fowler June 1999
