Life can be bitter-sweet. As we walk through the valley of the shadow, pain and sorrow may be constant companions, yet they make God’s comfort and goodness towards us that much sweeter and kinder. By the same token, the sorrow of losing loved ones may yet find solace in a confident trust that they were welcomed into a better place; there is the joyous hope that we may yet meet again. Life and death are twin sides of the same coin, like the horizon dividing night and the dawning light of day; like both the sweetness and sting which define the nature of a bee.
An account which illustrates this with profound abstraction is one of the accounts of Samson – the man of mighty deeds. One day, it is written, he came upon a lion and ripped it to pieces with his bare hands. Some time later he found its carcass housing a bee-hive dripping with honey and surrounded by a swarm of bees. He dipped in and ate of it, and later wrote a riddle: out of the eater came something to eat, and out of the strong came something sweet (Judges 14:14).
The death of the lion – a mighty beast – made known the sting of death and the sweetness of resurrection life which comes after it. Sometimes death is not literal death. It can be that pivotal moment or sequence of circumstances when our strength is broken and we are undeniably confronted with the fragile and fleeting nature of our mortality. The sting of death is in our bitter confrontations and struggles with the limitations of our humanity which is ultimately mirrored in that final enemy, death. To quote Paul: the sting of death is sin (1 Corinthians 15:56). So, apart from physical death, sin or missing God’s mark can cause us grief. At the end of time, though, we will be singing a different tune from the ones composed by life’s trials. Then we will proclaim: O Death, where is your sting? (1 Cor 15:55)
God, who is kind and good, allows place for both the bitter and the sweet – the elements, which together, if rightly handled, add strength, substance and godly content to our character. In our weakness, we will find strength in God’s comfort. In our perplexity, will find solace in His fore-knowledge of all things. In our search for answers, we will find wisdom in God’s perspective even if He does not satisfy us with all the details we may be looking for. In our sudden realization that the other side of life is much nearer than we may have first thought, we will discover personal profundity and maybe even discover God Himself. It is these most fundamental issues of life and death which God, in his perfect kindness and mercy, may allow into our lives to draw us closer to Him.
The sting is in our sense of loss, sorrow, perplexity, helplessness, distress. The honey is in God’s pot of things good and true – courage, joy, wisdom, trusting, hope, endurance, patience, provision, strength, comfort, humility, worship – all the things which we can eat of when we dip into God and truly walk with Him as a friend. The honey, too, is the sweetness of God’s encouragement and counsel, and of knowing that nothing – neither life nor death nor principality nor power – can separate us from the love of the One who loves us with such sweet kindness, such perfect faithfulness and such a strong, mighty and boundless love (Romans 8:38).
For those who may be weeping now, know that God not only numbers the hairs on your head, but also the crystals in your tears; and His compassion will catch them and colour them with hope – hope that tomorrow will be brighter, that sweet surprises wrapped in rainbow promises are on the way, that God Himself will take you beyond your sorrow to a place of hope and joy if you take the hand He offers. Tears today will flow as rivers of joy tomorrow, cascading from the mountain-tops of His promise to do you good all the days of your life – the sweet honeycomb promise laid up for those who rest in His kindness and compassion, who eat good and golden things from His hands.
An account which illustrates this with profound abstraction is one of the accounts of Samson – the man of mighty deeds. One day, it is written, he came upon a lion and ripped it to pieces with his bare hands. Some time later he found its carcass housing a bee-hive dripping with honey and surrounded by a swarm of bees. He dipped in and ate of it, and later wrote a riddle: out of the eater came something to eat, and out of the strong came something sweet (Judges 14:14).
The death of the lion – a mighty beast – made known the sting of death and the sweetness of resurrection life which comes after it. Sometimes death is not literal death. It can be that pivotal moment or sequence of circumstances when our strength is broken and we are undeniably confronted with the fragile and fleeting nature of our mortality. The sting of death is in our bitter confrontations and struggles with the limitations of our humanity which is ultimately mirrored in that final enemy, death. To quote Paul: the sting of death is sin (1 Corinthians 15:56). So, apart from physical death, sin or missing God’s mark can cause us grief. At the end of time, though, we will be singing a different tune from the ones composed by life’s trials. Then we will proclaim: O Death, where is your sting? (1 Cor 15:55)
God, who is kind and good, allows place for both the bitter and the sweet – the elements, which together, if rightly handled, add strength, substance and godly content to our character. In our weakness, we will find strength in God’s comfort. In our perplexity, will find solace in His fore-knowledge of all things. In our search for answers, we will find wisdom in God’s perspective even if He does not satisfy us with all the details we may be looking for. In our sudden realization that the other side of life is much nearer than we may have first thought, we will discover personal profundity and maybe even discover God Himself. It is these most fundamental issues of life and death which God, in his perfect kindness and mercy, may allow into our lives to draw us closer to Him.
The sting is in our sense of loss, sorrow, perplexity, helplessness, distress. The honey is in God’s pot of things good and true – courage, joy, wisdom, trusting, hope, endurance, patience, provision, strength, comfort, humility, worship – all the things which we can eat of when we dip into God and truly walk with Him as a friend. The honey, too, is the sweetness of God’s encouragement and counsel, and of knowing that nothing – neither life nor death nor principality nor power – can separate us from the love of the One who loves us with such sweet kindness, such perfect faithfulness and such a strong, mighty and boundless love (Romans 8:38).
For those who may be weeping now, know that God not only numbers the hairs on your head, but also the crystals in your tears; and His compassion will catch them and colour them with hope – hope that tomorrow will be brighter, that sweet surprises wrapped in rainbow promises are on the way, that God Himself will take you beyond your sorrow to a place of hope and joy if you take the hand He offers. Tears today will flow as rivers of joy tomorrow, cascading from the mountain-tops of His promise to do you good all the days of your life – the sweet honeycomb promise laid up for those who rest in His kindness and compassion, who eat good and golden things from His hands.
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