Bees in My Bonnet

“And through him everyone who believes is freed from all things, from which you could not be freed through the law of Moses.”—Acts 13:39  (NASB)                

I saw a phrase yesterday that perfectly summed up my past week—I had bees in my bonnet!  Imagine yourself on a warm and sunny day, walking through an exquisite garden in full bloom with dozens of floral and foliage varieties, fresh new colors and fragrances at every turn.  Nobody dangling off your hips or permanently attached to your legs or rooting around for the next meal.  Assuming you’ve taken your hay fever medicine, you’re in pure bliss, and then…bees!  A whole swarm of them!  It ruins the whole picture no matter how blissful you were.

For instance, while camping in an otherwise perfect site in California one year, we had so many bees swarm us at every meal that my husband built, out of a Frisbee, an empty bottle, some string, dishwashing soap and raw meat, a rudimentary “Hotel California”… where the bees “could check in anytime (they) like, but (they) could never leave” as the song goes.  It was a total obsession for five solid days — a rare form of entertainment only possible in the primitive surroundings in which we found ourselves.

What kind of bees are you swarmed by?  Mine came last week in the form of home improvements, punctuated with that H-word…hormones.  If I had looked past my daughter’s rolling eyes and sassy remarks and looked instead into her heart…maybe then I would have recognized her expectations, like mine, had been shattered when we spent 5 out of 7 days of vacation working around on home improvements instead of having fun…maybe then I would have responded in love. Some days the bees come in the form of fatigue.  Sometimes it’s a burned meal, an unwelcome phone call or guest…all at the same time.  Maybe it’s trying to squeeze $200 in bills out of a $25 bank account.  Or maybe it’s those scales again.  Some days all it takes is for my child to look at me cross-eyed and I start in a flurry that drives us both to tears.

Whatever form they take, everyday pressures can pile up and suddenly come like a swarm of bees and beat you down (Deuteronomy 1:44).  That is, unless you see beyond the present and into the eternal picture. 

Paul gives us an idea of an eternal picture in 1 Corinthians 13:12 when he writes, “Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror: then we shall see fact to face.  Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.”  I find it encouraging that while I may not now know all the why, when, where and how-to’s of talking with and parenting our children, one day I will.  I will meet Jesus face to face and He’ll explain it all…I shall know fully…everything.

But what good is that eternal knowledge when I’m down here swatting bees today?  Well, I need to remember that those “bees” are NOT going to follow me around forever.  God gives me a glimpse of understanding as I look at myself through the heart of my child– a sort of mirror to my soul– and if I’m paying attention, I am also able to free myself from the swarm of the moment and focus on what really is important. 

When I’m not paying attention, my children usually are.  Our daughter Andrea truly has a heart of gold, and is often the first to say, “I’m sorry,” through heartfelt tears, when as the “mature adult” I should have been the first to ask forgiveness.  That’s when, as I look into the reflection of the mirror God gave me, I’m reminded of the words Jesus spoke in Matthew 18:4, “Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”