Serving With a Purpose

 

After retirement, Ranjan Vee’s father began bee keeping and harvesting honey for a hobby.   On a recent visit, his father excitedly showed him the honey he had just collected from the bee hives.  As he lifted the top off of the five-gallon container, Vee noticed that there were three bees that were trapped on the top of the honey.  Because of the coating of honey all over their bodies, the bees were not able to fly away and escape.  Ranjan asked his dad if there was anything they could do to help, but he commented that they would not be able to survive.  Vee still wanted him to try.

Going inside, Mr. Vee found an empty plastic yogurt container.  He used it to skim over the top layer of honey, captured the three bees in it, and then placed the container on a bench in the backyard.  Since the hives had been disturbed earlier, during the collection process, there were still several bees flying around the backyard.  Later, as the dad checked on the bees, he noticed something amazing.  He called his son to come outside and see what was happening.  The other bees had surrounded the container and were cleaning the sticky honey off of the stuck bees.  On a later check there was only one bee left, but it was not alone.  The other bees were still tending to the remaining stuck bee.

 

As it came time to leave, Ranjan went with his dad to check on the last bee.  The container was empty.  “Those three little bees lived because they were surrounded by family and friends who would not give up on them, family and friends who refused to let them drown in their own stickiness and resolved to help until the last little bee could be set free.”

 

Anthropologist Margaret Mead was once asked what she thought to be the first sign of civilization.  Anticipating the response to be grinding stones, fish hooks, or clay pots, the students were surprised with her response.  Mead stated. “The first sign of civilization in an ancient culture was a femur (thighbone) that had been broken and then healed.  A broken femur that has healed is evidence that someone has taken time to stay with the one who fell, has bound up the wound, has carried the person to safety and has tended the person through recovery. Helping someone else through difficulty is where civilization starts.”

 

Maybe we truly are our best when we take time to help and serve others.

 

 

You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh, rather, serve one another humbly in love.

Galatians 5:13

 

Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.

1 Peter 4:10-11