Loyal Messengers
Lil Sweet Pea and I are still studying “loyalty” in our character studies. This week, we learned about the honey bee and its exceptional ability to communicate amongst the other bees in their hive. With thousands of bees in one beehive, precise communication must happen in order to successfully maintain cooperation and productivity within their environment. The queen bee lays two to three thousand eggs daily. The drones must be on the lookout for future queen bees while the worker bees must accomplish their distinct tasks and responsibilities for the hive to buzz with ease and efficiency. We’ve learned some fascinating facts about bees. Did you know that the worker bees pass through a sequence of six stages in its life including cleaner, nurse, storer, repairer, guard and scout during its brief 38 day life span? Did you know an average colony of honey bees is approximately 60,000 bees with one queen bee and approximately 100 drones? The bees guarding their home can detect if there is an intruder bee coming in to disturb the hive by using their 1,200 scent organs that are on its antennae. These are only just a few of the intriguing facts about honeybees.
As bees are scrupulous to communicate within their hives, there was a family named the Rechabites who had carried a message forth for 200 years. Their ancestor had instructed the family to not drink wine or buy homes or land and they had successfully honored his strange instructions for 200 years. They were called before the Prophet Jeremiah who requested them to drink wine he’d set before them and violate the instructions of their forefather. Although they were caught between a rock and a hard place of not wanting to dishonor the prophet before them, they were unified in their response as they chose to honor their family’s instructions and all that was commanded of them. Not realizing this was a test, the Rechabite family had shown a great example of obedience in the face of pressure to conform. The Word of the Lord came to Jeremiah to use this family as an example to the entire nation to teach them the importance of obeying the commands of the Lord in the same way the family had obeyed their forefather’s instructions. The family reaped great rewards for the strange commands that had been given to their family years ago; saved from being killed or put into captivity as well as an unusual harmony and bond of love within a closeknit family. To top it off, because of their obedience, God promised that family there would always be godly descendents. This aspect of loyalty is “being a reliable messenger to those I am serving.” As we see with the honeybee and the Rechabites, they both show the importance of being reliable messengers to those they were serving. Who do we serve? If we are married, we serve our spouse. If we have children, we serve our kids. If we are employed, we serve our boss. What messages are we communicating? And how do we communicate? So many misunderstandings and hurt feelings come from miscommunication. Part of the character of loyalty involves the honing of good communication skills to effectively say what we are trying to say. As Proverbs promises, it is good to pursue loyalty. I’d go as far to say that it would prevent many hurtful break-ups and divorces if loyalty was put into practice. Loyalty is a strong character quality we all should work on.
“He who pursues righteousness and loyalty finds life, righteousness and honor.” Proverbs 21:21