Monday, June 24, 2013

me, the bee, and Jesus.

I'm gonna tell you a quick story.  This was far too much to put in a simply facebook post.

I'm allergic to bees.  I've never gone into anaphylactic shock or anything, but the few times I've been stung the reaction was pretty severe.  When I was a kid I remember stepping on a bee or getting stung on my hand, and my affected limb was immobile for days on end from the swelling and temporary nerve loss.  Even a few years ago, I stepped on a bee and my foot was so swollen and numb that I was taking benadryl for three days at least.  These reactions make me never want to think about how my body would react if (God forbid) I were to be stung in the face or the core part of my body.

This morning started out pretty interesting.  I woke up at my mother's house, to a bee next to my head.  The bathroom window had a bee sitting on the screen, so I quickly shut the window and I think he's still stuck in there.  I didn't think much of this aside from, "Well the house is in the woods, bees and bugs happen."  Nothing abnormal about it, right?

Until this happened...

I'm in a bathing suit, getting ready to go outside and sunbathe.  I'm on my laptop in the livingroom, and I start to feel a prickle on my ankle.  I think, "It's just an ant, nothing shocking, just brush it off."
I look down and see a very large yellow-jacket crawling around on my ankle!!!

Immediately I freeze.  My mind stops, and I don't know how to react aside from maybe just cry about it and don't move a muscle until it flies away.  I wait about two minutes.... he doesn't move.  I flicked a muscle in my foot, and he moves, but he still won't leave my leg.  Not to mention that I'm still in a bathing suit, feeling very naked and VERY vulnerable.

I pictured what would happen if I tried to squish him, or flick him off my leg with my fingernail or perhaps a magazine within reach.  The stinger either would've immediately gone into my leg, or he would've flown away and come right back, stinger forward ready for vengeance!  This kept me still, going over all the options but feeling powerless to do anything about the current position of the bee.

I decided it was time to pull out the big guns... or at least the only guns I have when I'm stuck in a sticky situation that I feel I have no control over.

I prayed.
Dear Lord Jesus, please remove this bee from my ankle.  Please God, please don't let this bee sting me, please get him off of my ankle.  Please God, Please Jesus, .... 

You get the picture.

I started to feel a tingling in my ankle, and my ankle started to go numb, and then I really started to become frightened thinking that the bee had somehow stung me without me feeling the initial sting!!  I got the courage up to actually look at my ankle, and my foot muscles twitched slightly, and there was the bee. 

He wasn't moving.  But it wasn't like before, this time he seemed frozen.  He seemed... dead somehow.  My ankle still had tingling, numbness, and now warmth.  I thought he had stung me for sure and that explained him being dead.  Then suddenly, he snapped out of his frozen state, and it was as though he had been hypnotized.  I've seen bees behind glass at the zoo or a museum and the way he was moving was just... strange.  He very slowly turned around, and walked down my ankle, and over the top of my foot in a straight line, and casually crawled off of my foot and onto the carpet.

The nonchalant attitude of it all!! Oh God, how this bee just decided he wasn't interested anymore and walked off was a serious blessing and so very strange to me.  And he kept walking! He didn't even fly off, he just kept sauntering in the opposite direction.

I decided, heart pounding, hands shaking, tears on the brink, to protect my bathing suited-self and the oblivious dog sleeping near me on the couch, from this culprit.

WHAM!!

Sorry, bud. Wouldn't want your friends coming to join you later.