Are you afraid of bees? Normally, they don’t bother us if we don’t bother them, but sometimes there are exceptions. In this story, the Lord used a bee that acted strangely to teach a wonderful lesson to a little boy named Paul.
One summer day, Paul was playing outside while his mother worked inside where she could see him. Suddenly a large bee came buzzing around and around Paul’s head. For some reason, it seemed determined to sting him. He tried to scare it away, but the more he tried, the closer the bee flew to his head. Finally, he ran inside to escape the bee, but the bee just followed him. Very afraid, Paul ran to his mother and hid under her apron.
Paul’s mother, who had seen Paul’s fight with the bee, was surprised at his fear. But, full of motherly love, she immediately put her work down to completely cover him up with her apron, holding it in place with her arms. She had just finished doing this, when the bee landed on her and stung her in the arm, leaving his only stinger there. The bee sting surprised Paul’s mother, and, of course, it hurt. But, as she looked at the bee on her arm, she had a thought, and it was used to help Paul come to Jesus.
His mother said, “You may come out now; the bee has stung me instead of you. Come out, and look at it on my arm.”
Curious, Paul lifted the apron and stuck his head out to see. Sure enough, there was the bee on his mother’s arm. She said, “There it is; you may play with it now, for it cannot sting you. It had only one stinger, and it has left that in my arm.” Paul felt bad that the bee had stung his mother, but seeing the stinger in her arm, he knew he was safe now.
His mother then explained to him how this was an example of what she had been trying to help him understand for a long time — that just as she had taken the bee’s sting instead of Paul, so Jesus had taken Paul’s place and had taken the punishment for Paul’s sins so he wouldn’t have to go to hell.
Paul had learned the verse, “With His stripes we are healed,” but he had never understood it. But when he thought about the bee and the bee sting, he finally understood that Jesus had given Himself to be punished instead of him. It was very clear — God would not punish Paul, because He had already punished Jesus!
“He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:55But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. (Isaiah 53:5)). This means that the Lord Jesus was punished by God as if all our sins were done by Him. Jesus willingly took the full punishment for our sins, so that now, if we believe in what He did, we can have peace with God. Isn’t His love for us wonderful?
Messages of God’s Love 12/19/2021