Fall has arrived in the Mountain State. One thing from summer that I regret not having is a picture of our Ruby-throated Hummingbirds. They have left for the winter.

So now I must select a different subject. Yellow Jackets. Believe it or not, the hay stack in the picture is surrounded with them. During one of our morning raking times we inadvertently piled grass over an entrance to their nest–without even knowing it.

Why weren’t we stung? How could we nearly turn their world upside down without getting a reaction? The answer is that our raking took place early in the morning. Like most insects, yellow-jackets are helplessly “asleep” before being roused by the warmth of the morning sun’s rays.

Isn’t it the same with us? Often we are not bold to do the simple things  we know to do because we don’t feel it’s the right time–It’s “too cold” (Proverbs 20:4) I’ll add here too that the hummingbird, bolder than most other birds, and most definitely bolder than the Eagle, has a peculiar trait in that it, too, becomes torpid in cold weather.

May the warmth of Christ awaken us! I remember once, sitting in the car at Wal-Mart, hesitating to witness to the cart-collector continuing on my Chinese study until I looked at that young man through the eyes of Christ. That made the difference. Unlike the yellow jackets and the hummingbirds, may God bless us, in season and out, with …

BOLDNESS

Confidence that what I have to say or do

is true and right and just

in the sight of God