Bee Yourself

You can just about see the tiny white flowers near the top of the bush.

I spent some time the other day trying to trim back and tidy up some overgrown bushes at the bottom of the garden that had become a sort of mini forest.  It's a part of the garden that is mainly to make a natural barrier between our garden and the garden of the neighbours at the back of us.  So I like it to grow big and quite thick but it still needs the occasional 'haircut'.  While I was cutting away I noticed one bush had some tiny white flowers that I had never really noticed before.  They were so small that it is difficult to actually see them among all the foliage.  I couldn't help thinking that if that were a human they would possibly reason that hardly anyone ever goes to that part of the garden in the far corner at the back so why bother.  No-one would notice if it produced any flowers or not so what's the point?  But being a plant, it does just what it's designed to do.  Producing small flowers was something it just did in the annual cycle of life and it didn't depend on being noticed or appreciated.  It flowered anyway!

Taken from the BBC Springwatch Facebook page, 20th July 2014

We have heard much lately about the bees and how we need to look after them.  They are considered to be the most important pollinators of food crops.  It is thought that a third of the food we consume each day depends on pollination mainly by bees.  The inset picture shows some very interesting stats about bees and what they do.  We are encouraged to have a bee-friendly garden by planting the plants that will attract bees.  Local councils are encouraged to leave spare ground as wild meadows for bee-loving flowers to grow in the wild.  I was very interested to learn that bees don't actually go so much for the exotic types of flowers but are more drawn to the ordinary British flowers including most of the wild flowers.  It's really quite mind blowing to think that so much depends on such a small creature.  It doesn't have the size of an elephant, the fierce roar of a lion or the strength of a grizzly bear to make an impression.  It's so small that it flies from flower to flower without many noticing it at all.


The Bible verse comes to mind about how God uses the weak to confound the mighty and the well known story of the shepherd boy David defeating the giant Goliath.  The thing is that so often we look for success in size and strength.  You are taught from childhood that you have to climb the ladder of success at work.  People try to impress others by saying that their relative or close friend has such and such a position at work or a certain car or large house.  Some love to show off their suntan to give the impression (rightly or wrongly) that they have travelled to some far off land (implying a certain wealth?)  In many walks of life (even church life) there can be a sort of competition for popularity and trying to be more active and involved than someone else.  Some people spend their lives comparing themselves with others and aiming to copy them or be like them.  It gets to the point that often people can feel a bit of a failure for just being ordinary, with no particular talent to share.  They have a rather apologetic attitude and are always striving after some false goal to achieve in order to 'make something' of themselves.  Yet throughout the Bible and in creation God shows time and again how he loves the ordinary.  


The flower at the bottom of the garden just did what is was supposed to do.  The bee just gathers pollen and nectar to keep his extended family fed and surviving every day.  It doesn't know how important it is in the big scheme of things - it just does what it is meant to do each and every ordinary day.  And that is all that God asks of us.  He just wants me to be me.  He made me me because that was his plan and that is my purpose - just to be me.  If that entails just doing the ordinary, everyday things then that is what I should do.  Who knows in the big scheme of things what that might mean or lead to.  I might never know but that shouldn't stop me from being who God made me to be.  Even if you think you don't make a difference or nobody notices, like the tiny white flower, do it anyway.  No competing or comparing with others.  Just bee yourself!