Children's Time: Mason Bees and Lazarus (April 6, 2014)

A part of the message for Lenten Tenebrae for Children

Today, what I would like to invite us to ponder is the fact that we live with all the creation of God – which means we live in harmony with every living being, every creation – people creations, animal creations, bug creations, bird creations, so on as you name them.

Here are a few paper castings – can you guess whose homes they are? You’ll find out at Children’s Time. Now, I invite N to read this Sunday’s Lenten message for us and snuff the five candles of our Lenten Tenebrae.

N: Holy God, help us to learn that all of your creations are holy and we must give our respect and care. Amen.

Mason Bees and Lazarus (April 6, 2014, the Fifth Sunday of Lent)

Good morning, my friends.

I hope you are still curious about whose homes these are!

These paper castings are a home for … Mason bees!

Have you heard about mason bees?

Mason bees are ‘wedding’ bees – They fly from flower to flower, carrying pollen all around; it’s kind of like they’re marrying the flowers together, and helping them make good seeds and fruit.

And they are very gentle bees – they never sting anyone, ever.

Another very interesting fact about mason bees is that they make a cocoon in August then, they sleep in their mud cocoon (the cocoons are mostly made out of mud) through the whole winter like hibernating bears!

Then they make their way out from the cocoon when spring comes and they feel it is warm enough for them!  

This time of year is the time for them to wake up and enjoy the spring!

Now these are the cocoons where the baby mason bees are still sleeping like bears sleeping through the winter in their den – the mason bees are still sleeping inside because they know it is still not warm enough for them!

These are the cocoons already opened – the baby mason bees inside already hatched from their cocoons. Can you see the small holes in a few cocoons?

Here are a few pictures I took this week –

My family, including my mom (she came from Korea two weeks ago to visit my family, and she’s staying with us) stopped by N and N’s garden to see mason bees, and got these cocoons!

The next day, one of the little bees hatched.

Peace, my older son, reached his finger out to the bee.

The bee climbed on Peace’s finger.

Peace helped the bee land on one of the flower petals,

and the bee crept into the flower and happily found a home there for a while.

In our Bible story today, one of Jesus’s best friends, Lazarus, is dying. Everyone is sad and has gathered together - everyone except Jesus. Jesus takes so long to arrive that Lazarus dies before Jesus gets to his home. Lazarus’s sisters are hurt and upset because it looks like Jesus didn’t care enough about Lazarus.

Jesus says to them, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.” Then Jesus does a great miracle: Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. Lazarus comes out of the tomb, comes back to life, because Jesus calls him to live. We call this ‘coming back to life’ thing – Resurrection.

In nature, especially during Lent, in this beautiful early spring season, we see life come back and new life begin everywhere – plum tree flowers, forsythias, mason bees, what else?

Jesus calls us to live – because our God who has made all creation is LIFE.

A Mason bee is amazing; every life is amazing and we are so lucky to be here as new life burst forth all around us!