Mama’s cubs are growing fast. They’ve grown from roly poly little balls of fluff to bears about half the size of their mother. Fall is a great time for bears with good things to eat like apples, grapes, acorns, hickory nuts and . . . bees!
Yup, one of my favorite things about bears is that they raid hives not only for honey, but to eat the larvae of wasps, jellow jackets and other serious stingers. My suggestion for ridding our yard of an in-ground hive was to open the gate one night and leave a trail of bear tempting food leading to it. Surely they would dig the hive out and make a meal of it. My husband felt that bears in the yard wasn’t a good trade for bees in the yard. Oh well.
This morning the brood stopped by and they were covered in yellow jackets. I found it hard to even look at them as the stinging insects swarmed around trying to penetrate that thick, thick fur. Which they couldn’t. BUT, bees can sting the bears on their faces and the tips of their ears.
So I watched to see if those stings would make red, painful welts. Nope. The bears just made the occasional swat at their faces as they kept right on eating seed out of the bird feeders. Which makes me think bears have a natural resistance to bee stings.
How cool is that? God gave them a food source and blessed them with the ability to tolerate the uh, downside, of pursuing that source. They crave bee larvae and don’t mind the resulting stings.
So, if God gave me a desire to be published, He probably also gave me the ability to withstand the stings. You know, the sting of working long hours without seeing a definite result. The sting of rejection from editors and agents. The sting of editing. The sting of public opinion once a work is published. Well, I could go on, but you get the idea. The road to publication is full of good stuff--rich, nourishing, delicious stuff. But there are also lots of annoyances buzzing around. I’m thinking I can tolerate those. Not enjoy them, necessarily, but I believe God is more than willing to bless me with tolerance for the stings of this world.
Romans 5:1-5 – Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.