The last few days, the warmer weather has excited a hive of bees that had moved into an old dead blackboy a couple of years ago… It has resulted in a few bee stings, and some of the smaller children are fairly allergic. One poor fella’s hand quite badly swollen for a couple of days.
Having visitors coming, we thought it best to try to do something about them today. Our local bee keeper David McCormick kindly offered to come and help, right on dark.
It’s rare to come across someone who loves their profession as much and is friendly enough to share knowledge freely. I suited up and listened to his wealth of knowledge on these amazing little creatures. Honestly, the more you know / research God’s creation, the more we can see how amazing He is. 1They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God. Romans 1:19-20 (NLT) Bees are a fantastic example of this: talk to anyone who has worked with them for years and they will say how they are still learning more about them…
The complexity of their community, the information they have individually, their hard working attitude and self sacrifice would be amazing for humans let alone tiny bees. And let’s face it, anything that can visit a flower and create sweet honey that helps humans fight sickness has to be crazy amazing!
So, David got the bulk of the bees into our bee box & we chatted for quite a while. His knowledge & tips of these amazing creatures freely flowing… I got about 5 stings, but as I had the suit on they didn’t swell too much.
The next morning, I had to suit up again to try to get the rest of the bees in the box. I had no idea that while I was down there we had a food delivery arrive.
As it turns out, the driver wasn’t able to reverse down our driveway, which is sandy & steep. So Sharmini and the kids went up with trolleys to unload. The driver was extremely grateful, commenting how unusual it was that people would be friendly let alone actually help. Of course Sharmini used this opportunity to give credit to God – (the reason we are friendly & helpful!).
The driver was an atheist…what a fantastic appointment!
One of my younger sons noticed that the front tyre on the truck looked pretty low. Another boy went to get a tyre tested and sure enough it was half what it should be – quite dangerous on the front of a truck! Sharmini offered for one of the older kids to reverse down the driveway and pump it up for him.
He agreed, so the boys sorted it out while Sharmini was able to share with the driver. As it turns out – he had just been listening to a celebrity who had recently publicly come to discover that Jesus is indeed the Way to life…
He started to open up and agreed that looking around at creation really doesn’t lead the thinking mind to conclude that there is no Creator. So much order, meticulous detail, acute precision, immense power, untold beauty and incomprehensible hurdles to alternate theories.
Another delivery driver arrived just as I was un-suiting, the kids helping him unload some steel. As he was leaving a few people arrived for parcels and one of the neighbours came over to talk. We have prayed for this person many times – they quite resistant to hearing about Jesus. Once, I felt strongly that we need to pray for him, we stopped what we were doing and prayed. We found out a week later that at that exact time they had had a heart attack and were picked up by ambulance.
Anyway, they are softening – uttering the words today “thank God for St John”…it’s a step in the right direction – especially considering what the reaction was early on to just the mention of God or Jesus.
We headed down to the house and we all able to share with excitement the little ways that God is at work all the time!
The rest of the day, outside work had to be in bee suits – the older boys doing some plumbing, and work on the verandah (talk about commitment!!) then prep for Sharmini’s birthday. God is doing stuff!
#ilovethislife
#ilovethisfamily
#thankYouJesus
Footnotes:
- 1They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God. Romans 1:19-20 (NLT)