Mark Sorensen I love a story I read recently that was originally shared by pastor and songwriter H.B. Barker:
Once upon a time, there was a wise teacher sitting in a beautiful garden. He was taking in the fragrances and captured by the beauty of the place when, suddenly, he witnessed a butterfly moving from flower to flower. First, it perched on a daisy. Then it went to a rose. Lastly, it went to a sunflower. Interestingly enough, however, it spent very little time on each individual flower, but, instead, moved haphazardly about the garden.
Next, the teacher saw a botanist enter the garden with a large notebook and equipped with an equally large magnifying glass in his hand. The botanist studied each flower individually, taking great care to fill his notebook with pages of his notes and drawings. Yet after hours of meticulous study, most of what the botanist had learned would be forgotten after he closed up his notes.
Then the wise teacher observed a small bee. The bee enthusiastically entered a flower, disappeared from view, and then emerged laden with pollen. The bee had left the hive that morning empty but would return full. In doing so, it would go back to its hive and share the abundance. With that bee’s effort, honey would be made to sustain not only itself, but the entire hive for the future.
This modern-day parable will preach.
The truth is, many can find themselves bouncing from church to church, attending countless numbers of Bible studies and small groups, as well as reading through stacks of the latest Christian best-sellers. Like the butterfly, however, if we’re constantly bouncing from this to that, very little time is spent on making the main thing the main thing. Like the botanist, we can interpret and study in-depth the words of Scripture and the teachings of Jesus, yet, if the knowledge doesn’t go from our mind to our heart, it’s just that – knowledge. We close up the Scriptures and walk away before they actually seep into our hearts and actions. However, the winner in Barker’s story was the bumblebee. Why? The bee came into the flower empty, it drank deep from the pollen it found inside, and it left full, taking it back to the hive so that others could be fed and filled.
James says, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.” (James 1:22–25)
Today, let’s take a lesson from the bee, shall we? Let’s dive deep into the Word of God and awaken to the goodness that’s made available to us all!
Be encouraged, friends. You’re prayed for.
