The Birds and The Bees

I've watched an ongoing conflict take place lately around the hummingbird feeder. The lament in the past few months about the absence of an abundance of honey bees in various parts of the world has a new meaning for me. I think I've found what the world's looking for. These missing bees are congregating around the hummingbird feeder. At least a large number of them. And it's driving the hummingbirds crazy. For a couple of years now, the population of hummingbirds in my back yard seems to have flourished. But this year there has been more bees than birds. I don't know how to get rid of them. The honey bees have responded to the colored sweetened water like it was the nectar that they so desperately love. And they usually cover the openings to such an extent that the hummingbirds have no place to feed. But there has also been another phenomenon to observe. Sometimes it only takes one bee around the feeder to disrupt the hummingbird's plan. The hummingbird seems to be ill at ease while the bee is close by. The bee's mere presence is often enough to make the hummingbird leave empty and disappointed.

When I was young, it was a popular thing to tell children about "the birds and the bees". The information that was communicated had nothing to do with feathered friends or buzzing bees but was indeed about nature. It was about the nature of human sexuality. Often when the session was completed, the children left with more unanswered questions and the adults left with a sense of incomplete and frustrated instruction. We never seemed to do an adequate job of sex education. The homes began to hush about it. And the church began to push the mute button. It was something we just didn't talk about until it was too late. So we left it to the cultural institutions. The schools began to teach it. And the streets began to instruct us. I wish I could turn back the clock a generation or two just to get this insight out for all to see. So here's my latest leftover thought:

The hummingbirds and the bees are attracted to the colored sugar water which appears to be nectar. Nectar is something good for both of them and was created naturally for the good of the rest of creation. So the birds and the bees are in conflict over something that is not what it seems. They would be better off searching for the real thing around real flowers but the feeder makes it too easy for them and it is so alluring. It seems we humans have intervened once more with our own design and haven't thought it through so well. So it is with society's teaching about sexual things. The media, our prominent cultural institution, does a pretty good job of promoting that which is not the real thing when it comes to the allure and accessibility and satisfaction of our sexual desires. In contrast, the Creator God has designed in His mind and written in His plan the good and right way to enjoy a sexual relationship between two human beings. The boundaries of marriage between a man and a woman is His naturally designed place to partake of this God-given pleasure. When our society turns from a trustworthy plan and design in favor of something that looks good and seems right to the mind of man, there is emptiness, disappointment, and death at the end of this direction. We have made our own design the way we think things ought to be. And we suffer as a people because of it. I think I understand the anxiety of the hummingbird as he shares the space at the feeder with the lone honey bee. Even though the tiny hummingbird dwarfs the bee, the bird knows that the bee has a stinger. That stinger could be death to him. Our so-called freedom to experience and experiment with sexual relationships comes with a price we are not prepared to pay. Our sexual freedom, the prize of my generation's sexual revolution, has deceived us. It is not what it seemed. It is no prize at all. It's a penalty and the price for our ignorance and rebellion. We are only as free as God makes us. Free love is when God sets us free to love His way.

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23)