Don’t Get Stung

August 31, 2009

By Kelly Bevill

When I was a kid, one of my dad’s hobbies was beekeeping.

One day, at the age of 4 or 5, I was playing in the front yard of our house with my brother. We had a hive of honeybees in our yard, but I never really thought very much of it. I could walk right next to it and the bees wouldn’t bother me.

Until the bees swarmed.

Swarming occurs when a queen bee leaves the hive and takes around 60 percent of the worker bees with her. The bees are not harmful unless they perceive a threat. But they look aggressive as they fly around, the air dense with buzzing bees.

At first I was scared, but then I remembered what my dad had told me. “Get low and crawl under the swarm.” So my brother and I got down on our little hands and knees and trekked across the yard — under the bees — to our front door. Once inside, we could see the entire front area of our lot engulfed in a cloud of honeybees.

If we had ran through the bees we would have likely been stung multiple times. But because we remembered what our dad had told us, we were able to get to safety unharmed.

The same is true with our Heavenly Father. Life is full of unexpected and scary situations. If we hide His Word in our hearts, we are able to recall it in times of need.

“I will praise you with an upright heart as I learn your righteous laws” (Psalm 119:7, NIV).

— Kelly Bevill is a senior at Evangel University studying journalism and served as an intern at the Pentecostal Evangel.