Renewal Is Stirring
Why my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God. Psalm 42:5 (NIV)
After the holidays, there always seems to be a bit of an empty feeling. We are left with the puzzlement of ‘What’s next?’ While we had a white Christmas here in Arnot, the snow has now melted with all the rain. It is rather bleak and certainly not very picturesque. However, the Son shines in my soul so I am grateful. Louis Lotz (All God’s Creatures) shares a hopeful message for all of us—especially on these bleak mid-winter days.
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It’s early January and the earth is frozen solid. Trees are gaunt and skeletal. I look out my window and see a slate-gray sky and stalactite icicles hanging from the gutters. Everything looks dark. Everything looks dead.
But it’s not. My honeybees are certainly alive. I tramp out to my hive, wading through the snow, press my ear to the wooden boxes. I can hear them in there—hummmm. Bees spend the winter awake and active, huddled together in a basketball-size cluster. To warm themselves, they vibrate their wing muscles, an action that burns calories and gives off considerable heat. Bees on the exterior surface of the cluster bear the brunt of the cold, but there is a gradual movement whereby bees on the inside migrate to the outside, while the outside bees move slowly to the inside. Every bee takes a turn on the outside where it is cold and spends time on the inside where it is warm. The hive box is half buried in snow, and it looks cold and dead, but a December beehive is bursting with life and renewal.
Standing in the snow my ear pressed against the hive, I’m suddenly overwhelmed with the thought that even when the world looks dark and hope seems cold and dead, renewal is stirring. Life is not as doomed as it appears. The solstice has come and gone, soon spring will arrive, and my honeybees will burst forth into the world. The daily news may be a torrent of sadness and sorrow, but creation has not spun out of the Father’s control. God will yet have His way with wayward mankind, and someday soon my breakfast will include an English muffin dripping with fresh honey.
I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world. John 16:33 (NIV)