navigating like a bee
woman in Helsinki Finland
Several years ago my husband and I were on a cruise with dear friends. The day we arrived in Helsinki, Finland we were going to split up. The men were going to a fort, what else? My friend and I were going to explore and shop. What else? As we were waiting to disembark my husband tried to hand me a map of the city center. My friend and I laughed. Every word looked like an eye chart. Her husband insisted we take a map. We argued that it would be of little help because of the language barrier and by the time we stepped off the ship our husbands were convinced we’d never make it back to the ship on time.
As we strolled along we checked out shops and beautiful architecture. We asked friendly locals for directions. We took our time and enjoyed the day until we found a lovely place for lunch. As we exited the cafe we looked at each other. Which way had we come? We tentatively decided we had come from the left and off we went having no idea where we were or how to get back to the ship. We walked along crossing several streets until she recognized a beautiful planter with flowers overflowing.
“We go right here.”
On another corner “Hey there’s that platter you liked in the window! We should keep going straight.”
We continued on like this until we could see the top of the ship in the distance. While standing in a long line to board the ship with our packages in tow, our husbands found us.
“We honestly didn’t think you’d make it.”
Men and women give directions very differently. A man generally wants to know if they should be going north or south when they turn or if the restaurant is on the east or west side of the street.
Women want to know if we turn at the Walgreens and keep going past the big church or if the restaurant is next to that salon with the pretty awning and pink door.
How are bees navigating given that the workers are all female? You may not be surprised to learn that they are navigating by landmarks. Around twenty days old they leave the hive for the first time and orient themselves in front of the hive. Sometimes called flight school by beekeepers they can be seen on sunny spring and summer afternoons hovering in front of the hive. They make increasingly larger and larger figure eights, or as I like to think of it, the symbol of infinity, first in front of the hive entrance but then higher and higher up to thirty-five feet or so, noticing where the hive is located in relation to the things around it. They memorize the visual cues and also use polarized light (a secret map in the sky only the bees can see) to navigate back to the hive. It acts as an internal GPS that helps them get home on cloudy days as well as sunny ones.
Bees hone this skill and learn more details about their surroundings as they develop and gain skill on their foraging flights. They aren’t born with a perfect map of their hive’s exact location in their tiny bee brains. They have to practice it.
honey bee with scroll graphic
The Bible tells us that we also have an internal GPS.
We do not know what is right or wrong because of what society has taught us or any laws made by man. God has placed in each of us a conscience that allows each of us to know right from wrong. In Genesis 3 after they sinned Adam and Eve realized they were naked. God didn’t have to tell them they were naked. They were immediately aware of their sin because their moral compass was activated. God didn’t come along and explain the what or why of their sin and why they should feel bad about it. They already knew inside.
In Romans Paul tells us that even though the Gentiles didn’t have the Law they still did things required by the law. Why? Because, the requirements of the law are written on their hearts and their consciences bear witness sometimes accusing them and sometimes defending them.
Each person is born with an internal knowledge of right and wrong, and as Paul points out even those who had never heard of the Mosaic Law were still practicing many parts of it. People in most cultures worldwide know that it is good to honor parents and bad to murder someone for instance. But like the bees honing their navigational skills we can also train our consciences to be more sensitive and listen to what God is saying to us. Sure, I’m not going to rob a liquor store on my way home from work, but do I feel bad about how I spoke to someone and feel the need to apologize?
Where would the bees be if they refused to practice their navigational skills? Lost and far from home. We can end up that way too if we refuse to listen to our conscience. Just like the bees hone their navigational skills by using them, we need to strengthen our conscience by listening and then doing the right thing.