Sweeter Than Honey
During my childhood I was allergic to honeybees and yellow jackets. At age eleven I was playing in a neighbor’s yard when I stepped on a nest of yellow jackets that had built their colony in the ground. I was stung over fifty times and spent several days in the hospital. For the next twenty or so years I received regular allergy shots, actually called venom immunotherapy. Most kids outgrow bee allergies and I did as well. While I still try to avoid bees and bee stings, I do enjoy what those pesky honeybees produce… honey.
The production of honey is fascinating. The process begins when bees extract nectar from flowering plants. They then store this nectar in their extra stomach while transporting it back to the beehive. When the honeybee returns to the hive it passes the nectar to another bee by vomiting the liquid into that bee’s mouth, who then does the same to another bee, one closer to honeycomb. This process is continued until the partially digested nectar is deposited into the honeycomb.
However, this nectar is still a liquid, so in order to remove the excess water from this nectar, the bees fan it with their wings to speed up the evaporation process. Once most of the water is gone, the bees secrete another liquid from their abdomen, which hardens into beeswax, safely sealing the honey inside the honeycomb for the bees, providing them with a food source to be consumed during the cold months. That is, unless Winnie the Pooh, honey badgers, raccoons, or humans get it first.
Today we most often use sugar, or sugar substitutes, to sweeten our food and drink. But until the sixteenth century, when sugar became widely available, honey was the world’s primary sweetener. Since I have cancer, I try to avoid as much sugar as possible, and honey is a good substitute. It is sweeter than sugar. While sugar only sweetens, honey on the other hand both helps to sweeten food and drink and has several health benefits as well. Honey, however, is also very high in calories. Not only do we consume honey, we also oftentimes describe things good as “sweeter than honey.”
Psalm 19 reflects in three separate motifs the beauty of God’s Works and His Word. It begins like this: “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.” Verses 1-6 describe the glory and wisdom of God through His creation, verses 7-11 reveal God’s law, and the psalm ends with a three-verse prayer asking for forgiveness and acceptance. We find these powerful closing words: “May the words of my mouth and meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.”
In my opinion, the beauty and transforming power of God’s Word is described in this psalm better than any other place in Scripture. Here is what we find in vv.7-11: “The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul. The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes. The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever. The decrees of the Lord are firm, and all of them are righteous. They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the honeycomb. By them your servant is warned; in keeping them there is great reward.”
Did you get that – God’s Word is sweeter than honey. Are you taking time every day to ingest and digest His Word, allowing it to feed you, nourish you, and transform you?