07 Sep Sympathy for the Yellowjacket

Ramona and I had friends over for dinner recently. It was a beautiful evening, and we were grilling chicken, so we decided to eat outside. That changed when yellowjackets decided to join us, chasing us inside. As we scooped up dishes and food from the patio and complained about the insect invaders, one of our friends said, “This is a difficult time of year for them.”

As a pastor, I know well the importance of extending God’s grace to all who offend us. Still, extending that grace to stinging insects is a pretty heavy lift for me. That said, my friend was right. Late summer early fall is a difficult time of year for yellowjackets.

The adult yellowjacket diet consists primarily of sugars and carbohydrates, such as fruits, flower nectar, and tree sap. Larvae feed on proteins derived from insects, meats, and fish. Workers collect, chew, and condition such foods before feeding them to the larvae. Larvae, in return, secrete a sugary substance for workers to eat.  As insect sources of food diminish in late summer, larvae produce less for workers to eat. Foraging workers pursue sources of sugar outside the nest including ripe fruits and human garbage (or your picnic table). (Source: Wikipedia)

So, the unwelcomed insect guests are essentially starving by late summer/early autumn. That means any source of protein will attract them. They are simply doing what God designed them to do; find food wherever they can. If after hearing that explanation you’re still not inclined to be charitable to yellowjackets, you can still apply an important lesson from them to your faith life.

In John 7, the Jewish leaders, looking for something, anything, with which to condemn Jesus, call him out for “working” on the Sabbath; Jesus had healed a man on the Sabbath. It was then Jesus’ turn to call them out:

21 Jesus replied, “I did one miracle on the Sabbath, and you were amazed. 22 But you work on the Sabbath, too, when you obey Moses’ law of circumcision. (Actually, this tradition of circumcision began with the patriarchs, long before the law of Moses.) 23 For if the correct time for circumcising your son falls on the Sabbath, you go ahead and do it so as not to break the law of Moses. So why should you be angry with me for healing a man on the Sabbath? 24 Look beneath the surface so you can judge correctly.” John 7:21-24 (NLT)

“Look beneath the surface so you can judge correctly.” What does that mean for us? Before you condemn the driver who just cut you off in traffic as a stinging yellowjacket, ask yourself some questions. Why are they driving that way? Is being late for work the third time this month going to cost them their job? Are they driving home after receiving a terminal cancer diagnosis? After being rejected by their spouse or adult child? The same goes for the rude clerk, postal worker, or receptionist at your doctor’s office. (For more on this kind of judging, you also might want to check out the story of the woman at the well in John 4.)

In simple, 21st-century English, we usually don’t know what we don’t know. This may not stop you from cursing the yellowjackets invading your picnic. But I pray that knowing why they’re invading will help you to understand that we usually don’t know what we don’t know when we curse the stinging behavior of others. And that we will be prepared to “judge correctly,” which means having God’s grace at the ready!

Pastor Jerry Bader (with a hat tip to my dear friend Mike)