Sometimes We Have to Let Nature Take Its Course and Bee Grateful!

Previously posted on May 30, 2017 @Homescool.ph

We’ve just wrapped up our 4th quarter of SY 2016-17 and we are down to our last homeschooled son at Level 5. One more year? Maybe two? Oh wow, who would have thought, 15 years would come by as it did.

Since he is our 4th homeschooled child, we did Botany again this year using Apologia’s Young Explorer Series: Exploring Science with Botany and as we did with our 2nd run with Astronomy, it was really a fun ride.

A few days ago, I was delighted to see our Guava Tree back in full bloom and ready to bear fruit. I was in awe.  It was just a several months ago that I posted an image of luscious green guavas with a crunchy outside and bright pink, sweet tasting inside Guava fruits, leaves and trees are very much part of the growing years of my side of the family. We climbed its branches, hung from it like Tarzan as we jumped into a pool, ate its fruits for snacks and yes, even boiled its leaves for wounds and skin infections.

However, I noticed, after bearing fruits, parts of the tree began to decline. Leaves were drying and shriveling up, the branches looked ill, and the last few fruits didn’t anymore taste as good. I thought that was the beginning of the end of “reliving” our childhood days in our Antipolo residential farm. Some who saw the tree said, “It may die soon like the langka tree beside it.”

But a few days ago, I was in shock, as I peeked out of my window, lush and green leaves blended with bees feasting on the countless flowers! Our lessons in Botany came in full swing again. The bees would play a crucial role in pollination in order to produce seeds and fruits!

How does a tree heal? How did our guava tree heal? With proper conditions of sunlight, lots of rain lately, and yes, the presence of helper birds and flying insects, it looks like our tree will yield fruits again. This whole idea made me think and smile.

We often find ourselves in situations whether as wives, mothers, sisters, aunts, daughters or friends, where we have done everything within our control to try to solve a problem. The problem however lingers. The self-preserving nature in us just wants distress, discomfort and pain out of the door as fast as possible. But there is no clear answer ahead, there is no light visible in our the “tunnels” of our lives. And so, we do what we all hate to do, wait.

The happy bees reminded me that waiting can bear fruit when that is what our dear Father in Heaven is asking us to do, to wait and trust. Waiting hones character and builds up faith.

I remember one mom sharing in a seminar that she fears her homeschooling experience with her preschool daughter has gone really sour and it’s time to click “restart”. Sometimes, all it takes is probably saying sorry to our loved ones to see the beauty in “restarting”. On other occasions, it may mean, letting go of the “self-inflicted” pressures we put into our homeschooling days that put our relationships with our students in jeopardy.  In the rush, we all need to take a few steps back to see really where we are going and to check what areas in our lives really need a restart. And when we have put in place the elements for a good restart, many times, we just have to wait and let new memories with our children replace the hurtful ones, and like the guava tree, we just grow together and for sure, the tree will be fruitful again.

Prayerfully waiting in some way is similar to what happened to our tree. Nature and time just took its course and eventually healing and blooming set it. It’s toughest to wait and “do nothing.” I’ve once read that “Praying” is not doing “nothing” We seem to always have the tendency to believe that many of our stressing about can actually change, heal, restore, solve problems but we do need to know when Someone is asking us to just wait and let go. Then one day, the blooming and bearing fruits will happen again.

I so needed that learning that day. And I am sharing it with it you. It’s fascinating how Jesus Himself looked at nature to explain foundational lessons in life in Matthew 6:28-30, “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life. And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, you of little faith?” That morning, I knew it was Him who was saying, “Look at the guava tree, Donna, Look at it every day.” (And while you’re at it, “Bee grateful” for those who have come alongside in the painful process of waiting). 

So do not worry, saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear? For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Matthew 6: 31 – 34