Parable of the Bee Box
Theme: A veteran beekeeper wanted her bees to know how much she loves them. Also, the beekeeper wanted to know what the bees experienced and what they felt.
A beekeeper of many years loved and cared for her bees so much.
She often tried to imagine what the bees’ lives were really like and what they felt on the inside. She wanted to communicate with them so badly.
One night, as the beekeeper started to drift off to sleep, many strange and unusual images flooded into her relaxed mind. She had many wild dreams of flying about the flowered fields and seeing the world through the color schemes that bees see.
In the morning, the beekeeper realized that her experiences were in synch with a bee’s experiences. Moreover, it seemed to be the experiences of a particular bee. Simultaneously, the beekeeper could see the world from her own perspective as well as seeing it from the perspective of a specific bee.
She quickly ran from her house to the bee boxes in a nearby field. From the bee’s visual experiences that she also experienced, she tried to find out which bee box her bee was in. But she could not figure it out.
The beekeeper’s special bee, which she now called Bella, was definitely a worker bee because Bella was currently doing housekeeping somewhere in the bee box. Later, Bella switched to feeding a few of the larvae.
Being connected to the mind of the beekeeper also affected Bella. The connection made Bella more knowledgeable and wiser than the other worker bees.
Bella communicated to them on how loved they were. According to Bella, there was a giant creature called “The Beekeeper” that loved each and every one of the bees, watched over them, and took care of them. “The Beekeeper” wanted Bella to convey this message of love to the bees.
So many of the worker bees deeply admired Bella and believed in her message. Although the bees could not quite focus upon and see something this big, they still believed Bella that such a large creature existed and was full of love for them.
But some of the bees thought Bella was crazy. They did not believe in a giant creature that loved them. Bella was just a worker bee, so how could she have any special insight or message for them.
Some weeks later, Bella went out on a long flight to look for new promising areas for pollen and nectar. After a long flight to a distant new field, Bella found a great place. The beekeeper was experiencing Bella’s flight and the search as if it were also happening to her.
Bella hurried back to the bee box. Now, the beekeeper was going to get to experience a waggle dance as if she were performing it. Bella performed a wonderful waggle dance that repeated a figure-eight shape. Bella communicated to her fellow worker bees the direction to this new field and about how far away it was. They took off to find it and bring back as much pollen and nectar as they could carry.
This beekeeper was the first human ever to experience how a waggling bee felt on the inside while she was dancing. It was an amazing experience and the beekeeper wrote it all down in her journal.
On the other side, Bella’s mind now had much of the knowledge and the wisdom from the beekeeper. Bella would share these new insights with her fellow worker bees. Once, Bella gave a long speech that communicated how best to think of things and what attitudes to have. They called it the “bee-attitudes.” All who heard it were so amazed by Bella!
Bella’s wisdom was beyond that of any bee in the hive—even the Queen herself.
“Never was a bee as wise as this bee,” the other worker bees concluded.
One day, Bella did a waggle dance that was so different than any waggle dance ever done. The dance seemed to say that there was a giant field full of sweet pollen and nectar, bigger and sweeter than anything they had ever seen. But the direction to this field was in every direction. And the distance to the field was every distance. It was near and it was far. It was all distances from them at the same time. It was in all directions at the same time. It was everywhere, as life with God is.
Some of the bees seemed to understand Bella’s message. But for others, this strange waggle dance confirmed that Bella was indeed crazy. This was sad because Bella had always led them to great sources of pollen and nectar before.
Bella became more and more popular among many of the worker bees. She was starting to become even more popular than the Queen. The Queen became jealous of Bella. Some supporters of the Queen wanted to make Bella look bad, so that Bella would lose her popularity. Other supporters of the Queen wanted Bella to leave the hive entirely. They thought she was dangerous to the hive.
Finally, the queen’s supporters arrested Bella and charged her with trying to become the Queen of the Bees. This was a serious charge because there can be only one queen of a hive. They believed that Bella’s very presence in the hive was threatening the Queen’s status.
There was a trial and Bella was found guilty of trying to take over the hive and become Queen of the Bees. But, Bella was innocent. She did not want to be the Queen.
Bella only wanted the whole hive to know about “The Beekeeper” and her love for them. She also wanted the hive to know that there was a new life for the bees that was even sweeter than pollen and nectar—and it was their life with God.
The Queen convicted Bella of treason and of trying to overthrow her power. In punishment, Bella’s stinger was removed, which caused Bella to die.
Many of the worker bees loved Bella and they became very sad. They took her body away and coated it with a material called propolis, which is a kind of bee glue made from their saliva and their beeswax. It preserved Bella’s body and honored her memory.
The worker bees were so sad that for the next two days they could barely work!
Then, on the morning of the third day, three of the worker bees went to check on Bella’s propolis-covered body. But it was not there! The propolis covering was broken open.
“Someone has stolen Bella’s body,” they cried.
Two of the bees went back to tell the others. Bella’s closest friend stayed a while longer. A bee came up behind Bella’s closest friend.
“Do not be afraid,” the new bee began. “I am here. I am.”
The closest friend turned around and looked very closely at the new bee and then began to recognize who she was looking at, “Bella? Bella. Bella!” They came together to rub antennas.
“But you are different,” the close friend continued. “You are no longer a worker bee. You are a Queen.”
Word quickly spread—it created quite the buzz—that Bella had come back to life and was transformed into a Queen. The old Queen was removed from the hive by the other bees and in her place sat Bella who had died as a worker bee and came back to life as a Queen. Bella the new Queen was the wisest queen ever. She ruled the hive forever with the perfect balance of justice and mercy. And, of course, Bella the Eternal Queen ruled with complete Love.
The beekeeper experienced everything that Bella had gone through. The beekeeper now knew what it was like to be a bee and she loved her bees even more for knowing all their experiences first hand. The beekeeper wrote it all down so that all humans would have the chance to understand a bee’s life and the amazing story of Bella, the Queen of the Bees.
And, of course, when describing Bella’s experience, the beekeeper included the passage, “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” (1 Corinthians 15:55).