Did You Know Bees Are Side-Sleepers?

Okay, some bees are side-sleepers.

Some bees just sprawl out on their bellies and sploot.

Still others dive into the flowers and sleep with their little bee butts pointed to the sky.

The other day, when it was a bit chilly out, I saw another bee, dug deep into a zinnia, with the petals wrapped around him like a blanket.

The one thing I have never seen is a bee asleep on his back.  Alas, if a bee is on his back, chances are the poor bee is not sleeping.

But still the most amazing thing to me is this … bees sleep.

And they’re not alone in the natural world.  Early in the morning, I have seen, not only bees, but also moths, spiders and flies, sitting still on flowers, seemingly frozen in time.

When I lived in Florida and walked our church’s prayer labyrinth in the spring and fall, I was careful not to disturb the thousands of love bugs that were sleeping in the labyrinth’s shrubs. 

If even insects know it’s time to rest, why is it so hard for us?

I, myself, function best with about nine hours of sleep.  I wish it was uninterrupted sleep, but honestly, if I slept nine hours straight that might feel more like a coma.

How much sleep do you need?

Do you wish you could sleep more?

What’s holding you back?

Is it time?  Do you think you just don’t have the time to sleep that much?  Is sleep low on your priority list? 

Because if that’s the case, let me remind you that in Mark 4:35-41, Jesus and the disciples are on a boat during a very intense storm.  The waves are crashing over the boat.  The disciples think they are going to die.  And what is Jesus doing?  He’s sleeping.  That’s how important sleep is.  Not even a storm will deny Him rest.

And when the disciples wake Jesus up, begging Him to do something, here is what He didn’t say.

He didn’t say, “Oh, it’s storming?  I had no idea.  Thank you for waking me.  Let me try and quiet this storm.”

He’s Jesus.  He knew it was storming.  He just prioritized sleep over the storm.

So when the disciples wake Him, the first thing He says in Mark 4:39 is “Quiet! Be still!”

Now is He saying that to the storm or to the disciples?  The Bible says He addressed the storm.  I think He meant it for the disciples too.  Because both the storm and the disciples got real quiet, and real still, real quick right after that.

But rest is more than sleep, isn’t it?

Sleep can give our body and mind time to heal each night.

But to rest our spiritual selves, we need something more than just sleep.

Take Elijah in 1 Kings 19:1-7.

Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, ‘So may the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life like the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.’ Then he was afraid; he got up and fled for his life, and came to Beer-sheba, which belongs to Judah; he left his servant there. But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a solitary broom tree. He asked that he might die: ‘It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors.’ Then he lay down under the broom tree and fell asleep. Suddenly an angel touched him and said to him, ‘Get up and eat.’ He looked, and there at his head was a cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. He ate and drank, and lay down again. The angel of the Lord came a second time, touched him, and said, ‘Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you.’

I see memes on this passage frequently, in reference to selfcare and the necessity of eating well and staying hydrated.  But this passage isn’t Elijah taking some time off to have dinner with friends.  He is specifically attended to by an angel of the Lord.  And it is only after he has had this time to eat, drink and rest that he is ready to meet with God in 1 Kings 19:11-13.

He said, ‘Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.’ Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Then there came a voice to him that said, ‘What are you doing here, Elijah?’

It is only after Elijah has taken care of the important things, like food and water, only when he is able to accept those things from the angel of the Lord, that he is able to truly listen to God.  He wasn’t ready, sitting under that broom tree, begging God to take his life.  But he’s ready now.

Rest is not just about our physical needs, but our spiritual needs as well, and we can absolutely see that in the natural world.

Ten years ago, I was getting ready for my first Christmas without my mom and two grandfathers, all three of whom had died earlier in the year.  Those first holidays without loved ones are so difficult and I could not get into the Christmas spirit, even going so far as to pack up my Christmas decorations only days after putting them out.

I was hurting spiritually and so every day, I drove out to the church to walk the grounds, to be surrounded by nature, in the hope that I would feel God’s presence.

On one of these days, I got out of the car, headed out around the church toward the prayer labyrinth, when something caught my eye and I stopped suddenly in my tracks.

Our prayer labyrinth was a living labyrinth with a path marked by shrubs.  Throughout the year, it was home to pollinators, birds and rabbits, and, at first, that was what I thought I was looking at … a rabbit, something grayish-brown, close to the ground, hiding behind all that green.

So, I took out my camera and zoomed in to get a closer look.

It was not a rabbit.

It was a bobcat, lounging in the labyrinth.

Now, I knew that people had seen a bobcat at the church, but despite all the days I had spent walking the grounds with my camera, I had never seen one—until that day.

I did one of those choking, half-sobs, mesmerized by the beauty of this bobcat, the wildness of it and the complete serenity it seemed to embody there in a place for prayer.

I took picture after picture, following it—from a distance—as it walked away and headed for the woods. Once, it looked back at me—I have a picture of that too—and there was a spiritual connection, the kind you feel when God answers prayers.

I had prayed that morning to feel God’s presence and God provided that in a way I could not have thought to ask for or imagine.

Rest.

It’s not just sleep.

Rest for your soul is time spent with God, breathing in and out, in and out, the spirit of the living God.

Like Elijah in the wilderness, selfcare is more that eating and hydrating—it is time spent with God.