A Lesson from the Beekeeper
Psalm 119:103
“How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!”
When I was in my twenties, I had a friend whose father, Peter, kept bees. One day, he invited me to help collect honey. I was fascinated by the paraphernalia that goes with this activity – the costume, the hood, the smoker, and the hives. Peter had ten hives. His bees were very distinctive. They had a deep brown abdomen with a single yellow stripe across the middle of it. After collecting the combs and spinning out the honey, we went for a walk. We walked a couple of miles across meadows filled with willowherb – a flowering plant which is known in the US as fireweed. Bees were collecting nectar. Many of the bees looked like those in Peter’s hives. They were, indeed, his bees.
Peter explained that when the bees return to the hive, they will do a little dance. These dances are quite sophisticated and give information to others in the hive about the distance and direction of the nectar flowers. For example, the bee imparting the information will include a part of its dance at an angle to the vertical. The angle of the bee to the vertical is exactly the same as the angle between the nectar flowers and the sun. Information like this is then used by the worker bees so that more of them can find their way to the food source.
Such complex behavior could not have arisen by evolutionary chance. It is far more logical to suppose that this was a feature deliberately designed by the Creator.
Prayer: Your word, Lord, is sweeter than honey. Thank You for providing us with Your word which gives us everything we need for life, learning, and salvation. Amen.
Author: Paul F. Taylor
Ref: Viet, K. (2017), Honeybees: One of God’s Sweetest Designs, < https://answersingenesis.org/creepy-crawlies/insects/honeybees-one-of-gods-sweetest-designs/ >, accessed 06/28/2017.
© 2022 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.
For more from Creation Moments, visit CreationMoments.com.
Listen to daily messages from Creation Moments on OnePlace.com.
