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Object:  A jar of honey. I used a 16-ounce jar, but if you use another size just do the math to change the number of bees that would have been needed to create that much honey. It takes at least 12 bees to produce 1 teaspoon of honey. Sometimes I have given the children a taste of the sweet honey at the end of the message, but that depends on whether any of your children might have allergies to honey or have problems with that much sugar.

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Hello, everyone! (Let them respond.) Who can tell me what I have here in my hand? (Show the honey and let them respond.) It is a jar of honey, isn’t it? (Let them respond.) And who can tell me where honey comes from? (Let them respond.) Honey is made by bees, isn’t it? And that’s why we call them honeybees. Did you know that Jesus talked about honeybees? (Let them respond.) Well, he didn’t really talk about honeybees, but it sure sounded like it. Let me tell you the story so you can see what I mean.

One day when Jesus was just starting to go around to talk to people about God, he was on a hill next to the Sea of Galilee. And when people heard what he was doing they came from all around the country to see him. The story says that many of the people who came to see him were very sick or hurt. Back then, if you were sick or had a problem like that, people thought you were unclean. They thought that if there was something wrong with you, it was because God was punishing you, so they wouldn’t try to help you or even touch you. If you were sick or broken, you were left completely alone. That would be pretty sad, wouldn’t it? (Let them respond.) But when Jesus saw someone who was sick, he not only talked to them and touched them, but he healed them and made them better. As sick people heard about it, they all went to see him and hoped he would help them too.

Well, one day, Jesus looked at the big crowd of people who had come to see him and he told them about honeybees. (Let them respond if they look doubtful.) He said things to them like, “God will bless you if you take care of each other and protect each other.” And, “God will bless you if you don’t hurt anyone or be mean to anyone.” “God will bless you if you treat everyone the same and don’t act like you are better than anyone else.” “God will bless you if you share what you have so no one is hungry or doesn’t have a home;” And, “God will bless you if you do the work God wants you to do to help each other.”

Those are the things Jesus told the people that day on the hillside. Do you know why I said he talked about honeybees? (Let them respond.) It’s because the things that Jesus said he wanted those people to do are the same things that honeybees do. Honeybees all live together in a hive, just like we all live together in the world. When a honeybee is born, its first job is to clean its room. (Let them respond.) The honeybee cleans out the place it was born in to make sure it was ready for the queen to put eggs in it for new bees to be born. And when the honeybees get a few days older, they start helping clean the rest of the hive to make sure it is safe for all of the other bees that live there. They all work together and help each other do the work. Some of the honeybees are a little bigger or more colorful than others, but it doesn’t matter. They all help each other do the work to make sure everyone in the hive is safe.

When the bees get a little older, they start going to the door of the hive to meet the older bees who are going out to find food and water for the hive. And the younger bees meet them at the door and carry the food and water inside and put it where it needs to be to stay clean and safe so everyone has enough to eat. And when the honeybees get older, they go out the door and start flying around to find water and food to bring it back for everyone to have. The honeybees don’t fight with each other, and they don’t want to fight with anyone else either. Did you know that if a honeybee stings someone, the honeybee will die? (Let them respond.) That’s what happens. So, the honeybee does not want to sting anyone. They just want to do what they are supposed to do to take care of everyone in their hive. And if they do those things (show the honey) all of that food and water they bring in will turn into a big bunch of honey that will keep them all alive and safe.

It does kind of sound like what Jesus told those people, doesn’t it? He said that if we do the things we are supposed to do, we will all be blessed with what we need. If we do what we can to take care of each other, to make sure everyone has enough to eat and a safe place to live, to treat everyone the same even if they aren’t just like us, and not to fight with or be angry with anyone but to just do the things God asks us to do, then we will be blessed with everything we need. It sounds just like the honeybees, doesn’t it?

Did you know that we have a special name for the things Jesus said to the people on the hillside that day? (Let them respond.) We call them the Beatitudes because it comes from the old Latin word, “beatitudo,” which means blessing.

But I call them the Beatitudes because those things Jesus said we should do are the attitudes that honeybees have. They are the Bee-attitudes, and every time I see a honeybee it reminds me of what God wants me to do.

Before we go (show the honey) does anyone know how many honeybees it took to make the honey to fill this jar? (Let them respond.) It took over one thousand honeybees to make this much honey. And every one of the honeybees in the hive worked together to help them create it.

Let’s pray together and ask God to remind us that Jesus loves every one of us and wants us to follow him and take care of each other the way God takes care of us.

Prayer
Dear God, thank you for reminding us how much you love us, and for forgiving us when we forget that. And please help us remember that you love all of the people you have created, and help us let the people around us know that we love them just like Jesus loves us. Amen.