The Birds and the Bees

   I am sure that when you saw the title of this blog that you thought that I was going to start a discussion on sexuality.  But, the truth is, I really am going to literally talk about the birds and the bees. In my front yard of the new home that we recently moved into, I have three bird feeders which I fill up several times a week.  Yet, it is amazing how fast those bird feeders become empty-sometimes within hours.  Between the birds (especially the morning doves and the starlings) and the squirrels, the feed rapidly disappears.  I can barely keep up with this feeding frenzy as the birds and those bushy-tailed rodents peck away at every seed I fill up in the feeder.
    In my back yard, the neighbor who lives behind me is a beekeeper by hobby.  Bees are a very social insect and my neighbor told me that after the males are done mating (OK, so I couldn't totally avoid talking about sex!) that they like to get together and hang out.  Often bees will swarm and stay together and they are known to be hard working insects who produce honey.  The important fact is that bees very seldom work alone and are known for their connection with other bees.
    These two lessons from nature which involves both my front and back yard teaches some important spiritual lessons that has implications for the church of God's people.  First of all, the birds remind us of their hunger for the seed as I can barely catch up to them before it is time to refill the feeders.  What would happen if God's people had that kind of hunger for God and for His word?  What would happen if His church was so hungry for the presence of the Lord that they were never satisfied to stay at the same level spiritually.  Churches would have a new passion.  People would not keep checking their watches thinking about the next diversion that can take away their attention.  Worship would be dynamic and God's people would never have enough of the Lord. Jesus says in Matthew 5:6, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be filled."  What the church needs today are people who are hungry for God.
     Secondly, the bees remind us that those who call on the name of Christ constitute a community.  In our individualistic society, this is a truth that is too often forgotten.  We talk about our PERSONAL relationship with Jesus and our PERSONAL devotions and our PERSONAL calling from God but we have forgotten that we are called into a community.  I Corinthians 12 likens this community to a human body where the different parts are necessary and how they need each other.  This smacks in the face of much of the individualistic Christianity that we see in America today.  If we can learn one thing from bees, we are called as a community of faith.
    As Christians we can learn much about the birds and the bees and this is not merely from premarital counseling or a sermon series from the Song of Songs!  Much can be said about hungering for God and walking in community with each other.  Jesus said that the two great commandments was to love the Lord and to love one another ( Luke 10:27).  If even the birds and the bees can hunger and live in community, how much more should we who have been redeemed by grace do any less than to have a hunger and love for God and to love one another in community?