They are able to communicate with each other so that they find where the flowers are, they stay warm in the winter (even rotating positions, from outside to inside), determining who stays in the hive for housecleaning and who leaves to forage. It was fascinating to learn how complex the life of a bee can be!
One of the ways that bees communicate is by dancing. When a bee finds a new source of flowers it returns to the hive and communicates this through a dance. When the time comes to divide the hive and find a new home, scouts are sent out and they come back with their “recommendations” — all communicate through a “relocation dance” (they do not use ReMax!).
Now the experts are not exactly clear on how a final decision about a new hive is made (…location, location, location?), but I would guess it has to do with how convincing the scout bee is — that is with how much enthusiasm the scout bee has in dancing that relocation dance. After all, this is a major decision; the other bees need to be(e) swayed.
In the church, we know the true source of enthusiasm — not just finding a new flower or new home, it is finding the new life from God. Within the word enthusiasm is the Greek word for God – Theos. When we are enthused, God is in us.
We are about to begin a new season of ministry at Advent, great ideas are sure to come as we face important decisions. Let’s be inspired like those bees — to show our enthusiasm for our God, for our ideas, and, be ready to dance if necessary.