Bees and Me

Bees. I read Bee & Me to Erin Grace before her nap as she colored her coloring page with a yellow marker. Everything yellow. Yellow because she wanted to use a marker and that is the only marker left that works. That is what happens when you are two years old and have not learned the importance of lids. And yet, how appropriate for her to be coloring everything yellow.

For the past year she will come to me and say, "Daw uh bee." And so as I have done many times, and places, I draw a bee and then we sing along with Laurie Berkner, "Buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz, a buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz-a-buzz, oh bumblebee, can't you see it's just you and me." For trick-or-treating she was, of course, a bumblebee.

Last spring, I was making the 60-mile drive home from Sturgis, when Erin began making this indescribable screeching noise again and again as she writhed beneath the straps of her car seat. "What is the matter, Erin?" I ask. To which she screeched a spine-tingling sound that I finally interpreted as "Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiings! Wings!!" Finally, she got her arms out from the captivity of the car seat and was at last at peace because her "wings" were free.

So, it is not a surprise that the movie "The Secret Life of Bees" spoke deeply to my heart, as did the novel that I promptly ordered and then the author Sue Monk Kidd's website and book When The Heart Waits, but then that is to be another blog. . .

Anyway, Erin received Bee & Me for Christmas. As I read the little bee tell about how misunderstood bees are and how much more purpose they have than making honey, I felt a flicker in my heart telling me to pay attention. One page is vibrant full of lush flowers and vegetation and the next page is barren, gray, lonely. As I read the little children's book, I was overcome with awe for God. Awe for a Creator that put so much significance in the role of one little type of insect. A bee--so much purpose and significance in the role of a bee.

And I hear a small voice inside my being saying, "How much more significance do I put into the life of a person--of you--of one created in My image? Do you think it is by chance that a bee does what it does? Do you think a bee evolved with purpose and significance or do you think that it was created with intention and purpose? What does it say to you as you look at what a bee does?"

Just as a bee does what a bee does for such a time as this, so a person is created, is formed for such a time as this. In this time, in this place with intention, significance and purpose. Bees pollinate. They scatter life. They are life-giving instruments. Creating lush beauty and vibrancy of life in glorious vegetation. By doing what they were made to do. Do you think a bee knows what effect it has on the world around it? Even without being aware, it just does what it does and leaves a trail of sweetness and color---a trail of life.

As women, we are life-givers. How much more does He have intention and purpose for the individual woman. As part of the display of His image--we are life-givers as we bear life and as we nurture life. Yes, it encompasses motherhood, but also extends as we nurture the hearts of others doing what we were made to do.

I believe our uniqueness as individuals is given with intention and significance. To be who we were made to be because no other person can be that or fulfill that role. I believe this in the core of me, not just as sentimental gush, but in a way that has an impact to my life--that resonates with truth deep within me. Mary Engelbreit has a card that says, "Be yourself. No one else is qualified." Each one is significant. Is vital. Is life-giving. Is adding life, color and vibrancy to this place and to this time to these people. Right here. Right now. For such a time as this. . .

"Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life...Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?" Matthew 6:25, 26

"So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them." Genesis 1:27

"For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise. . .from another place. . . Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" Esther 4:14

"Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you..." 2 Timothy 1:6

copyright 2010 Jodene (Jodi) Shaw (photos and writing).