Bee's & God

Have you ever heard someone say something to a kid like, "God created the bee and the devil created the stinger."? Does it concern you at all when you hear things like that? It does me. It makes God too easy to understand. When God is easy to understand there is nothing left to fear. I think that's a problem. I think we have become a little too lax in our view of God and created something more along the lines of "Buddy Jesus" in "Dogma."

Does anybody remember Luther's explanation to the 10 Commandments in his small catechism? "We are to fear and love God..." What happened to fearing God? I mean good ol' knee shaking, teeth chattering, cold sweat inducing fear? As kids we feared and loved things like the boogie man or monsters under our bed. What happened to our viewing God in this way.

When we stop fearing God, when we stop being in awe of God, then God becomes innocuous and insignificant. We can get away with anything and we are left without expectation. Yes, there's still grace, but I think there are expectations. Look at our home lives. Parents love their children and offer them grace, but they also expect them to clean their room, act responsible, give their best on school work, etc. Is God all so much different?

God created both the bee AND the stinger. We can fear the wrath, the disappointment, and/or the presence of God. As it turns out God IS dangerous. However, we can also love God and feel comforted by God's presence in our lives. Imagine the disciples out in the boat as the storm arose and Jesus spoke into the storm saying, "Peace" and the storm settled. The disciples must have been scared to death to understand that Jesus could control the weather. (Can't you just see Peter whispering to Matthew, "Don't make him mad!") The disciples must have been completely comforted knowing that Jesus could control the weather. (Can't you just see Matthew whispering back, "Yeah, but thank goodness he's on our side... right?")