Working Together

What a laborious task the preparation of honey is. Only through the continuous effort of a swarm of bees does this delicacy come into being. The reason for this is that there is only a minute amount of nectar in one single flower. Nectar has to be collected from countless flowers for a substantial amount of honey to be produced.

At times, honey bees have to travel a cumulative distance of up to 300,000 miles in order to produce just one pound of honey. Since the lifespan of a bee does not extend beyond a few months, no single bee can produce this amount in its entire life, not even if it spends every second of its life gathering nectar from flowers.

Bees have found a way out of this difficulty. The task that they cannot perform alone, they perform by concerted action. A single bee cannot travel the long distances, or suck at the myriads of flowers needed to produce a substantial amount of honey. But what is impossible for one is possible for many, and bees make honey by working at it together.

Why should there be this involved and complicated method of producing honey? Could God not have placed vast reserves of the substance in the earth, just as He has stored petrol and water under the ground? Indeed He could, but He has conceived of things in this way so that human beings may take heed, so that they may learn numerous lessons from this sign of nature.

In life, there are some tasks that a person can perform in a short while, on his own. But there are other tasks that cannot be performed by one person alone. The only way to perform these tasks is by adopting the method of the bees—that of combined effort.

This, however, can come about only through the self-sacrifice of individuals. People have to be patient with one another, putting others’ needs before their own, thinking of the good of others rather than what they themselves desire. It is through the sacrifice of individuals that there can be such a thing as concerted effort.