Spiritual Bumblebees
By C.S. Bezas
According to aerodynamic
studies, a bumblebee’s weight is too heavy for its tiny
wings. Great effort has been made by many a scientist
to prove the impossibility of flight for a bumblebee.
What a miracle it is then to see it in actual flight!
The Lord does not give
up on his bumblebees here on this earth; regardless
of their anatomical structure, he gives them time and
the ability to fly. In many ways these earthly bumblebees
remind me of certain kinds of spiritual bumblebees in
my seminary classroom.
You know the kind — those
kids who might refuse to even acknowledge their spiritual
“wings,” those youth whose lives currently are too attitudinal,
heavy or “wrong” for their potential spiritual flight
as sons or daughters of God. Or maybe you have spiritual
bumblebee who reject nearly everything you teach. And
you worry how to get them to enjoy the potential of
celestial flight.
At times, our faith can
be tried by the actions or words of the youth in our
class. Will we ever get through to them, we wonder?
We sometimes do have students who do not appear as if
they are listening. We might even have an entire class
that is particularly hard to deal with. What if all
we try appears not to work? It is at that point our
faith perhaps is most tried. How hard it can be to continue
on, still trying to believe in the power of the gospel
to change souls.
It is during these times
that I am particularly taken with the following scripture,
where Moroni talks about faith being “on trial:”
Have you ever sat in on
a court case? Probably most of us have not done so physically,
but perhaps have done so virtually through a TV program.
The dialogue from the TV show probably was more spectacular
than that of an actual court case at trial. But there
are commonalities.
We do know that in real
court cases there is a judge, there is a defendant,
oftentimes there is evidence, and sometimes there is
a jury. The defendant has been placed on trial to assess
his activities on some level, in some arena. Once the
trial is finished, the judge and/or jury make a decision
as to whether the defendant is innocent or guilty.
Have you ever thought of
your faith being on trial in this manner, as Moroni
mentions it is? If there were a trial tomorrow and your
life’s manifestation of faith — for your students —
were in the defendant’s chair, what kind of evidence
would there be to protect and to support faith’s claim
that it exists on behalf of your students?
“Faith is things which
are hoped for and not seen….” (Ether 12:6) Those squirrelly
boys who sit in the back of the classroom and make your
life miserable — can you see them with an eye of faith?
Can you imagine that one day they will be respectful
and actually contribute to life, and that this can come
sooner, rather than later? Can you spiritually envision
it? Unfortunately, we are so often blinded by what
our physical eyes see.
Just what does it mean
to see with an eye of faith? An ancient young man learned
this lesson when he met with the prophet Elisha. The
king of Syria had sent this youth. The young man soon
was frightened when he saw a host of “horses and chariots”
surrounding the city. In fear he cried out to the prophet,
“Alas, my master! How shall we do?” The response came,
“Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they
that be with them.” The prophet prayed for the young
man, that his eyes might be opened.
A miracle occurred because
of that prayer. We read, “And the Lord opened the eyes
of the young man; and he saw: and behold, the mountain
was full of horses and chariots of fire round about
Elisha” (2 Kings 6:8-17).
We, too, can pray that
our youths’ eyes will be opened to the possibilities
and beauties of the gospel and those who stand ready
to help them. The fact that they are sitting in our
class is a marvelous thing. We know not who they were
before they came to this earth. Do we really dare prejudge
them now?
OK, maybe they are still
baby bumblebees, still unsure of (or perhaps unwilling
to admit they have) their spiritual wings, but that
does not mean they cannot achieve future flight.
Moroni mentioned our faith
would be “on trial.” And during the trial, we must not
place ourselves in the seat of “judge,” for only one
true Judge exists. Instead, let us remain in our own
defendant’s chair, continually putting forth true faith
as proof of our love for Him and for his “bumblebee”
students.
For how else will those
students learn the lessons of faith if they do not see
it manifested in our eyes and in our actions toward
them? True, they have parents and others who love them.
But we who serve them in a gospel capacity must consistently
model faith in them and their abilities, even when the
students themselves appear beyond help.
The Lord promises assistance.
We read in Ephesians 1:17-18 that with prayer, the Lord
will give us “the spirit of wisdom and revelation in
the knowledge of him: the eyes of [our] understanding
being enlightened; that [we] may know what is the hope
of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of
his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding
greatness of his power to us-ward who believe.”
It goes without saying
this great gift of wisdom and enlightenment does not
come without effort on our part. But we can do it! In
Ether 12:19 we read of the many “whose faith was so
exceedingly strong, even before Christ came, who could
not be kept from within the veil, but truly saw with
their eyes the things which they had beheld with an
eye of faith, and they were glad.”
Could this not also apply
to us as seminary teachers? To see with an eye of faith
what lies deep within the youth of today? Are they not
the noble and great ones spoken of by so many General
Authorities? Regarding those who sit in our classes
and create trouble, are we so sure they cannot spiritually
fly (like so many scientists remark about the bumblebee)?
Let us have hope and faith
that there is spiritual strength and power to fly in
all of our students, even the tough-to-handle
ones. And in so doing, one day we will be able to see
that which others saw in Ether’s time:
