When I was a small boy growing up in the country, population was sparse. Folks knew each other over wide expanse of inhabited areas. Large tracts of land lay virgin with nothing but natural forests, bushes and ferns. In that ecosystem humans shared habitat with huge diversities of flora and fauna. Among my earliest lessons as a child, survival tactics were an integral part of one’s knowledge. Different species of creatures ranging from wild and domestic animals, plants, birds, ants, insects, etcetera, were all part of everyday interactions.
For instance, I was taught to never attack a swarm of bees by throwing something at them, whether they were perched on a bush or just swirling past. Instead, people lay flat on the ground and let them go on their way peacefully. Tales of people and domestic animals being killed by bees was not uncommon. But certain people trained on proper handling of bees and benefited from those deadly insects. One old man I knew had hitched a dugout wooden beehive between a tree trunk and its branches in a neighboring property. Once in a while he’d pass by on his way to harvest honey.
With no protective clothing, he’d make a smoky torch to keep stinging bees at bay until he’d taken his loot. Forever working at twilight, he always carried a banquet of fragrant plants which he thoroughly rubbed onto the inner side of wooden beehive covers. I didn’t understand his ritual until years later. Bees immediately deserted a hive desecrated by a honey harvester, unless an overwhelming scent of flowers persuaded them to stay.
If we boys waited by the old man’s path, he’d sometimes give us a honeycomb to chew. The taste of that honeycomb on your tongue had a hypnotic allure that beckoned you to the old man’s honey bank. Except, of course, to mess with someone else’s beehive was not only morally wrong, it was a punishable crime! Countless legends warned you to keep off property that wasn’t yours.
Wild Fruit Vs Honeycomb Baits
The same jungles were home to other delicacies. From time to time, one of my older brothers would emerge from there with sweet black wild berries or some other amazing fruits, nuts or edible leaves. He’d give me a few—just enough to whet my appetite. If I craved more I’d have to explore the bushes myself to see what I could find. My brother was just a couple of years older than me.
It wasn’t long until I got some real earthshaking revelations! When an older brother tempted a little boy with a few mouthwatering wild fruits, exploration was conceived in the young mind. Wading through suffocating vegetation and enduring prickly thistles and thorns, I’d finally find myself staring at ripe wild fruits hanging from trees deep in the jungle. I could eat to my fill and come back for more another day. It was fascinating. However, when I eventually braved it to the base of the tree on which the old man’s beehive hung, I found it guarded! African warrior bees secured the hive, and all the knowledge available to me at the time was far below what it took to procure my desired delicacy.
Not All Goals Are Created Equal
The daunting challenges of my childhood desires taught me at least five big lessons:-
- There were goodies to be had out there.
- A desire by itself couldn’t procure the things whose existence I’d been made aware. I needed to pick up courage and go after them.
- It didn’t take very great sacrifice to obtain the wild fruits that another boy brought to my knowledge.
- An old man’s honey was not easy to procure. The honeycomb he willingly gave was not nearly as sweet as honey itself, which he never gave away.
- To enjoy pure honey, I needed to acquire a much higher level of skill, firstly to overcome deadly bees that fiercely guarded their treasure, and also to devise workable means to extract honey from a closed hive high up in the tree. I never did!
A Life Metaphor
I tell you this story as a gospel metaphor. I love metaphors. There are benefits to be had in the Kingdom of God. Some are ready for the taking, while others are not so easy. Today’s generation fosters a bizarre kind of Christian folks who think desire is all it takes to “harvest goodies” from God’s treasury, so to speak. The advent of social media hasn’t helped the situation. We have folks who are full of zeal but deficient in knowledge (Rom x:ii). We have gangs of Diotrephes’ adherents (iii John i:ix) who love to have preeminence so they can sideline legitimate voices and successfully pervert godly values. We have those who rebuke the ones that should be entreated (i Tim v:i) and entreat those who should be rebuked. We don’t know the difference.
I think about these things and wonder whether we are better off with the ever increasing host of “gospel firebrands”. But I observe that the Lord Himself told His disciples to let wheat and tares grow together (Matt xiii: xxiv-xxix). God has ways of enlightening those who genuinely seek Him despite the presence of toxins in their spiritual diets. Paul, apostle to the gentiles, noted that preachers drew incentive from such diverse human attitudes as envy, strife, goodwill and even crude desires to add affliction to his bonds. Still, he thought it great that the gospel was being preached through all that mess.
What’s my point? The big deal is not what we say or do, but why. God sees through every motive that propels our words and activities, and when He judges our works, MOTIVE will be the determining factor.
Remember, the moon shines because it reflects the sun. Similarly, we shine only as we reflect the Son of God, Who said, “…I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things.” (John viii:xxviii)