Butterfly, Botanist, or Bee

I just recently heard this excellent illustration by J.H. Parker of how we can study and read our Bible: "As I looked out into the garden one day, I saw three things. First, I saw a butterfly. The butterfly was beautiful, and it would alight on a flower and then it would flutter to another flower and then to another, and only for a second or two it would sit and it would move on. It would touch as many lovely blossoms as it could, but derived absolutely no benefit from it. Then I watched a little longer out my window and there came a botanist. And the botanist had a big notebook under his arm and a great big magnifying glass. The botanist would lean over a certain flower and he would look for a long time and then he would write notes in his notebook. He was there for hours writing notes, closed them, stuck them under his arm, tucked his magnifying glass in his pocket and walked away. The third thing I noticed was a bee, just a little bee. But the bee would light on a flower and it would sink down deep into the flower and it would extract all the nectar and pollen that it could carry. It went in empty every time and came out full."

John MacArthur has said, “Some Christians, like that butterfly, flit from Bible study to Bible study, from sermon to sermon, and from commentary to commentary, while gaining little more than a nice feeling and some good ideas. Others, like the botanist, study Scripture carefully and take copious notes. They gain much information but little truth. Others, like the bee, go to the Bible to be taught by God and to grow in knowledge of Him. Also like the bee, they never go away empty.”

How many of us must confess we more often resemble the butterfly or the botanist rather than the bee? But I want to be a bee! We have the Creator's manuel on how to live a joyful, contented, blessed, peaceful life that is pleasing to Him. How frequently do we consult His supernatural manuel, the eternal Word? How often do we just think we can figure it out on our own, muddling through, perhaps, like the butterfly, picking it up every now and then to peruse for some nugget of wisdom?

Or do we go from Bible study to Bible study, reading, learning, but then failing to put what we are learning into practice so we are like that botanist, ever studying, but never truly absorbing and therefore being transformed? When we do that we are like the man or woman described in James, who is a hearer but not a doer of the Word. "For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing." James 1:23-25

That doer of the Word, described by James, is the bee. Delving in, applying, obeying... day after day. We don't have to be a brilliant theologian or a gifted Bible teacher. We just have to read it and obey it... not just a hearer but "a doer who acts." And the result will be experiencing blessing and fullness like that satiated bumble bee! O Lord help us to be bees! So the question remains: are you a butterfly, a botanist, or a bee? We might appreciate the beauty of the butterfly or the studiousness of the botanist, but it's the bee that ends up with the honey! To God be the glory