Know Your Wasps From Your Bees!

 (I was recently asked to write the message that goes on the front page of our bi-monthly chapel newsletter so looked back through some of my old journals for inspiration. I came across this which I wrote in pre-blog days, so a good 14 years ago and thought it worth resurrecting).

I hate to kill any living creature, which might seem strange as I am a professional horticulturalist. To squash a slug or snail, even without intention, sends a shudder through me. But, today, on purpose, I killed a wasp. It was one of those huge creatures that had been hibernating all winter, emerging with the sole purpose of multiplying its own kind over the summer. As I did the cruel deed (with a rather satisfying crunch) that often-expressed question came to mind. Why did God make wasps? What purpose do they have? Even the slugs, snails and aphids are more useful as the birds just love to gobble them up, so forming part of the food chain.

A close relation of the wasp is the bee. These busy little creatures work so hard, collecting pollen for honey and pollinating all our fruiting plants and flowers you can forgive them the sting in their tail. Even that is only ever used as a defence whereas the vicious old wasp will swoop on you and plunge its deadly poison into you for no reason at all except inflict pain. Do not ever get the two confused.

The wasp comes in causing children, women and, yes, men, to run screaming away flapping their arms in terror and forgetting everything they have been told to do. A pebble dropped in still water produces ripples going further and further out, so the wasp comes in causing mayhem and carnage. If one suddenly arrives through an open car window it could be the cause of a multiple car pile up on the motorway as the driver loses concentration in an attempt to ward it off. In just the same way false teachers come among us and stir up trouble with their lies and deception. A half-truth, a lie or slight deviation from the truth if told in the church can cause equal damage, dividing the fellowship with untold hurt.

The point of all this is that you should know your wasps from your bees in the same way you should know deception from the truth. And to do that you need to set aside time to study the word of God, be in prayer asking for guidance, and forming a close relationship with Jesus. As you get to know Him better and better you will be able to decern when something said is right or not. In the same way you will quickly learn the difference between a wasp and a bee if you look closely at them and see what fruit they produce. One will come at you, buzzing angrily, intent on giving you a vicious sting whilst the other gently hums as it floats from flower to flower making sweet honey and a productive garden. Choose wisely which one to associate with!

But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. 2Peter 2:1

We can't always see the road ahead

It was going to be a busy morning. I had to walk the dogs, come back home to shower, get changed and breakfast, go and do the food shop, come back home and unload it all and then go back out to be at my weekly house group and all by 10am. I had mentally allowed myself an hour for the walk, an hour for the shop and another hour for getting myself ready and the travelling in between. leaving a little time to spare. My plans, my targets, I can do it all in my own strength! As often happens though, my plans were slightly thwarted and I was a bit late setting off to walk the dogs and they, of course, then contrived to sniff and scratch every blade of grass they passed so making our regular walk a good ten minutes longer than usual. By the time I had got them home, jumped in the shower and had breakfast, I had already used up most of the leeway time I had allowed. As I set off to do the shopping later than anticipated, I realised I was going to hit the school traffic on the usual route and was likely to be stuck in a traffic jam at a notorious bottle neck where traffic lights, crossings and roundabout converge so decided on the slightly longer option of going via the by-pass. I should not have bothered. As soon as I joined that road the traffic slowed and a long queue snaked ahead. It wasn't static but it wasn't moving very quickly either.

I began to mentally moan and complain to God. Why was everything conspiring against me this morning? And why was it that whenever I was in a queue of traffic the vehicle in front of me was so huge I couldn't see round it to be able to judge when we were able to move, or how far, until they started to roll? The clock was ticking and I thought I might have to miss the shopping this morning and do it later. My plans were all messed up!

Then it came to me. Life is just like this, we can't always see the way ahead and just have to wait and be patient. We don't know what God has planned for us, we just have to follow the road ahead and trust Him to get us to the other end. We do not, and may never, know what causes these holds up on our journey but it is all in God's will for our lives. Perhaps there has been an accident on the road ahead that, if I had been going at the proper speed and been a minute sooner, I might have been involved in. Perhaps God was just teaching me not to make my own plans rather than relying on His. Or perhaps He just wanted me to stop and admire the little jewels of roadside flowers, the rolling hills and simply enjoy His creation.

As I thought all this my mind calmed and I stopped stressing. Needless to say, the traffic suddenly started moving giving no sign as to why it had ever stopped, I did my shopping in record time and made the house group meeting spot on time. God is very good sometimes!