Daily Devotional – August 4

Biology

How does a honeybee, a cold-blooded insect, survive the winter? Bees like to keep their hive at 95oF. But how do they do this? As the temperature becomes cooler, the honeybees form a cluster. Those inside the ball of bees are kept warm, and they rotate with the bees on the outside of the ball so that all have a chance to remain warm. As the temperature continues to cool, the bees will move their flight muscles without flying; you could say the bees are “shivering.” This generates heat, warming the bee cluster further.

What if the hive gets too hot in the summer? Some of the bees act as cooling fans, standing at the entrance of the hive and beating their wings creating a breeze. If this does not reduce the hive’s temperature, other bees leave the hive and bring back water that they spread out on the walls of the hive. Now the fanning of the bees causes the water to evaporate and cool the hive.

Bees appear to be smart engineers, but they are just programmed to do this. The really smart engineer is the One who programmed this within them, and that is God.

Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and thou art exalted as head above all.

~ 1 Chronicles 29:11

Source: "Pearls in Paradise" by authors Bruce Malone and Jule Von Vett

References for this devotional.