Photo was taken at Wicklow, Co.Wicklow (Irl)

A honeybee was busy working the last of the blackberry flowers

Thought on Friday – September – 04/09/2020

Thought For The Week
‘God is the source of life. Life without God is hopeless. But life with God gives us hope that never ends.’ Lailah Akita

At the moment there seems to be a lot of wasps around. They hang around rubbish bins, around the kitchen door and can be very annoying as they fly around you in circles. It looks like we will have to put up with them for another few weeks. It would be a pity though to put the honeybee into the same category.

The honeybee will not be found near rubbish bins or around our kitchen doors. Instead it will be busy gathering nectar from flowers and even at this time of year they are busy working heather and fuchsia flowers. It is easy to see where the saying “Busy as a bee” comes from. For every jar of honey that is collected, millions of flowers will have been visited. There are no results without effort and the honeybee knows this only too well.

In the Gospel that was used over the weekend Jesus also talks about no results without the effort. He reminds us that to be a follower of his we will have to take up a cross. But great care must be taken in understanding what this means. Jesus knew only too well that every single one of us will be exposed to difficulties, sadness, setbacks, knocks, hurt and disappointments. We can’t avoid these. They are part and parcel of life. No person is shielded or protected from them. Jesus calls them a cross.

Life as we know can be fragile and unpredictable at the best of times. The important point here is that God never deliberately sends a cross our way. A cross is never sent our way to test us, to punish us or to keep us in our place. That would be such a cruel and horrible God.

Why would we even bother if we thought that this was the way with God? It isn’t or never will be. Jesus assures us that whatever our cross, we will find hope, light, courage and strength to help us through.


Thought For The Week is updated each Monday