Just recently we have had a problem with bees at our house. A colony
of bees had taken up residence in our bird house. I knew they were there
because I could see them going in and out through the little hole at the
front.
We did not want them in our back garden, we wanted them getting rid of.
I telephoned the Council Environmental Health department and they gave me the telephone number of the "Bee man"
I explained the situation to the "Bee man" on the telephone and he suggested
one solution was to spray some insecticide into the bird box and seal the
hole up.
I was reluctant to kill all the bees when the only harm they were doing
was being in the wrong place.
Perhaps the "Bee man" was losing patience with me because he asked me
what I wanted him to do about the bees.
I said I would just like him to take them away, and put them somewhere
else where they could carry on living. He agreed and the following evening
when they had all "gone to bed" he sealed the bird box up, unscrewed it
from the wall, and drove with it to the other side of the town where I
live, where he was going to fasten the bird house to a tree in his garden,
and the bees could carry on doing what bees do.
The following day I noticed one or two bees around the place where the
bird house had been. I scared them off with a broom however through the
next few days bees kept reappearing not realising that they had been moved
to a new area.
I think they have got the idea now as I haven't seen any bees for a
few days.
This story has parallels with God's relationship with us.
We are so much bother to him, with our sin that he could have
decided to wipe us out.
He loves us so much that he has given us a new start in his kingdom.
We often do what the bees did, return to our old haunts where unlike the
bees we will receive a warm welcome from our old friends.
So becoming a Christian means giving up the old and starting the new.
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come !" (2 Corinthians Chapter 5 verse 17)
In the 8th to10th Centuries Vikings invaded the British Isles. At first
they came to plunder and then returned to their own counties.
Later when they decided to settle in this country, they set fire to
their boats after landing.
If hardships had occurred, they may have been tempted to return to
their own lands. They would have been unable to return as they had burned
their boats.
We need to "burn our boats", leave our old life behind.
The new life is much better.
The apostle Paul viewed his new life as a vast improvement on his old
life, he wrote:-
"I consider it all [my past life] as mere refuse, so that I may gain
Christ." (Philippians Chapter 3 verse 8)
Michael Fowler June 1999
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