Saturday, August 9, 2008

Snuggled Up

by Donna L. Watkins

This morning I took an early stroll around the garden with scissors in hand. I enjoy dead-heading plants that don't have seeds that benefit the birds. Right now that's mainly the butterfly bushes and we have plenty of those. Dead-heading also keeps them from being invasive.

If I get out early enough as the sun is rising, I get to catch the overnight nappers. Mostly bees snuggled under a bloom or leaf. They always hang upside down which puzzles me, but I guess they want to be protected in case of rain during the night. When it's chilly, bees don't have the energy to fly about, so they need to choose a dry place to remain for the night.

I'm amazed at how much I can rattle a branch they're snuggled on without a stir from them. I can trim all around them and they just sleep on through. It makes me nervous having my scissors so close to them at times, but I'm one of those people that likes to be thorough in completing a task, so I go about my work, while the bee goes about his rest. No thoughts of the danger around him. In its body's time clock it's time to sleep and trust that tomorrow will bring a new sunrise and the necessary "daily bread."

This morning there was a moth feeding on the same white butterfly bush, not caring about my camera lens only two inches away any more than the bee did. It was busily drinking since its proboscis that sucks up the nectar was extended.

This bush seems to be favored as the best BB B&B (Butterfly Bush Bed and Breakfast) in our yard. I often find things on this particular bush so maybe the word is getting around or maybe there's some wisdom being shared from The Creator.

I never see butterflies sleeping on the plants they feed on. I've read they sleep in trees. I guess it's a safer spot since they can rest under the leaves to be unnoticed.

The bush does provide a great breakfast in the morning (as any of them would), but this bush is in the corner of the yard where the sun breaks the horizon and directs its light right onto it, so there's some thinking and planning going on in the insect world. Seems they know how to listen better than we do. Consider this information from an issue of Creation Moments:

Researchers at Princeton University decided to find out whether bees were smart enough to find their food source if it was moved. The researchers moved the prime food source 50 meters farther away from the hive. They found that it took the bees less than one minute to locate the moved source. Being precise scientists, they then moved the food source another fifty meters away. The bees still took less than a minute to find the food source. Two more moves, each a precise 50 meters, produced the same results. However, the bees had also been studying the researchers. Before the researchers could finish moving the food source yet another fifty meters, they found that the bees had discovered the pattern and were already waiting at the new location!

What about you? Where do you snuggle when the dark comes into your life, storms threaten and danger (scissors) is all around? Do you snuggle into our Father's lap, get positioned and hang on till the sun comes up again? Do we trust God to take care of things while we sleep? We are told not to worry. Max Lucado. says, "Worry is to joy, what a vacuum cleaner is to dirt; you might as well attach your heart to a happiness-sucker and flip the switch."

Jesus said, "Don't get worked up about ... tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes." (Matthew 6:34)

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