The Plumb Line: Lessons from the Bumblebee

“What is impossible with men is possible with God.” Luke 18:37 NIV.

Impossible? The people of the Bible were astonished to see the most unlikely people getting saved, or barren women becoming mothers, or women, who according to human standards were too old, have babies. “Nothing is impossible with God,” Jesus told the multitudes.

Just take a look at the bumblebee!
I must have been about 10 years old when my parents took me and my sisters on a summer holiday camping trip to Germany. It was there I fell in love with Bumblebees.
Our tent stood in a meadow, and early that morning, while munching on a “frische brötchen” (fresh roll) with jam, I spotted an apparently ill looking bumblebee on the ground.

She was making funny movements with her legs, and I wondered if she was dying. Not wanting

someone to step on her, with trepidation I stuck out my finger. To my amazement and delight she clumsily climbed on it. I could feel her little claws on my skin, and the tickling sensation of her hairy legs. When I saw her little tongue come out, I braced myself, afraid this round, beautiful furry black and yellow insect was going to sting me.

However, instead of biting me, she began to lick jam from my finger. I couldn’t believe my eyes! I reveled feeling the sweeping movements of her little brown tongue on the top of my finger ~ on an on it went. When the jam was gone, the Bumblebee moved to the palm of my hand, where she began to shiver and shake ~ like an airplane engine revving up. Her wings moved faster and faster, and then suddenly, she was airborne. With a lazy buzz, the bumblebee continued her clumsy flight, in search for nectar, doing her duty to pollinate the flowers and taking care of her offspring.

Ever since that day, when I encounter stranded bees in the early morning, I turn into a ‘bee-rescuer’. It’s such a wonderful opportunity to see these beautiful insects (either Bumblebees or honeybees) up close and send them on their way again, helped by a little honey or sugar water.

According to an internet-folklore myth, (originating from Germany in the 1930’s) aerodynamics tells us that Bumblebees should not be able to fly ~ their body is too heavy to carry them. However, those engineers used figures and equations as applied to fixed-wing aircraft. Nowadays, we know that the bumblebee can be better compared to the mechanics of a helicopter.
Even so, we have a Creator Who is not concerned about scientific conclusions, it only shows how wonderful and intricate His designs are.

As I began to read about Bumblebees, I stood in awe to my Creator God.
God laughs about what the world calls impossible ~ even if it was true that bumblebees shouldn’t be able to fly. They do, and even manage to carry as much as 75% of their own bodyweight in pollen with them.

The fact that this little furry insect is able to decide when to fertilize her eggs or not, thereby influencing the outcome of more queens, female workers and male bumblebees is just beyond me. The female worker bees (who only live about 4 weeks) chose their own favorite flowers (and learn how to enter them) to collect the nectar and pollen, which are brought to the nest. But even in the Bumblebee-kingdom ‘less perfect’ bumblebees fulfill a task: they stay home and perform household duties. Even though some may have weak or deformed wings, they still have an important task ~ taking care of the larvae.
There is so much we can learn from nature.

How often the world tells us that something cannot be done. That was the case with our special needs child. The doctor’s were not sure he would be able to ride a tricycle, or even walk. Well, he proved them wrong, for he learned to do both.

In the eyes of the world the ‘Less perfect’ among us are of no use, or so they think. There is so much we can learn from these precious souls, who ‘bloom where they are planted’.
Sometimes we are the ones thinking that, because we are just ‘ordinary’ housewives and mothers, we can’t do great things for God. But from those ‘weaker’ bumblebees we learn that they are very important, for they look after the next generation bumblebees. Their care ensures the colony’s survival!

Our Creator God is a God of the impossible ~ His ways are not like our ways of reasoning, and even when we try to comprehend how things work, we can’t. It’s just mind boggling.
Nature shows what a great God we serve ~ we may work for Him the way He created us: some as bumblebee queens, with lots of responsibilities; others as workers who fly in and out of the nest, always busy pollinating the flowers, but also providing for the nest. And perhaps you are a ‘weak’ worker bee, not strong enough to be a ‘busy Lizzy’. Still, you can fulfill your God-given task faithfully, even when you’re not out in the open much, like the ‘strong’ worker bees.
And lastly, there are the males: even though their life seems to exist only of just drinking (nectar), chasing queens and staying out all night long (they don’t return to the nest), they too have their tasks to fulfill. It’s not up to us to judge the way they were created ~ in the end, they too are accountable to God.

“Aerodynamically the bumble bee shouldn't be able to fly, but the bumble bee doesn't know it, so it goes on flying anyway.” ~ Mary Kay Ash

We may continue to ‘fly’, knowing that with our Creator God, everything is possible! No matter what the world tells us! With Him, even impossibilities ARE possible!