Christian Short Stories

Trevor writes: "I am a fellow Christian living in Cape Town, South Africa."

Somehow the bee had found its way into the house, and was now desperate to escape. It hurled itself at a window in my study, from which it could sense the garden outside, and clearly did not understand that repeated assaults on the glass would never succeed.

At first I took scant notice of the bee. I was wrestling with my forthcoming sermon, and it was not going well. Recently, I had noticed a few of my flock nodding off during my sermons. It dawned on me that perhaps the length of them was taxing the attention span of my listeners, and I was reminded of a closing sentence Winston Churchill wrote in one of his letters, "Please forgive the length of this letter. I did not have the time to write you a shorter one."

I looked at the bee again, intrigued by the futility of its efforts, and then moved by its desperation, I rose and opened the window. The window operates as a flap, opening upwards and outwards, leaving lots of space on either side to achieve freedom. The bee showed no realization that it only had to retreat slightly from the pane, and shift direction either to the left or right to be free. Instead it continued with its futile efforts. I tried to imagine the frustration of the creature. It was so close to freedom, and yet it was powerless to achieve it.

Just then, my young son Jonathon knocked and entered, "Sorry to interrupt Dad. Just a reminder you are driving me to the practice in thirty minutes."

"Sure son."

Jonathon then became aware of the bee, and without a moments hesitation, he strode across the room and made a gentle stroke across the side of the bee with his right hand. Whereupon two things happened. First the bee stung him, and then propelled by the momentum of his hand, it was swept to freedom.

Jonathon yelled out in pain, and I rushed towards him to comfort him.  "Will it die now? Will the bee die now?" he gulped through his pain.

"No it won't. Only honey bees die when they sting, and that was not a honey bee. Thanks to you the bee is now free. Ask your mother to take the sting out. She is good at that kind of thing. You will be fine. But give me a few minutes to write my sermon."

And so wrote about what had happened with the bee. I wrote about a father watching a creature trapped in captivity, and how his son had rescued the bee and set it free, but at a cost to himself. And I wrote that was what Christ had done for us, albeit on a much vaster scale, and at a much higher price. And I wrote that Jesus was still doing it for us today, and that if we will let Him, He will show each and everyone of us how to be free of the invisible pane. And that, brothers and sisters, is my short sermon for you today. 

(© 2013 Trevor Blow – All rights reserved. Written material may not be duplicated without permission.)