SPIRITUAL GPS
Go to a park or garden and you’ll see bees buzzing in and out of flowers. They’ll drink flower nectar and collect flower pollen. Then, depending on the kind of bees — there are 20,000 species around the world — they will fly back to their hives or nests.
In the tropical forest of Barro Colorado Island in Panama you can encounter sweat bees. But only during the night. They collect nectar and pollen after sunset until about an hour before sunrise. It is so dark in the middle of this forest you couldn’t even see your thumb if you extended your arm.
But how do these green-and-white bees find their way in such darkness? After they get their food how do they navigate through the forest to get back home?
Researchers studied them to see if they look up at the forest canopy where patterns of the night sky look slightly brighter than the super dark tree leaves. They also built special nests that had different patterns of black-and-white stripes over their entrances.
They discovered that the bees do navigate using forest canopy patterns, they pay attention and remember. The researchers also found that even if they moved the location of the nests the bees would find them because they had memorized the pattern before they left the nest.
Just like we can remember a gas station or McDonald’s to help us get back to our house. The bees do the same thing. They turn and face the nest flying around it. They memorize it so they can find it when they come back home in pitch darkness.
In Psalm 119:11 it tells us, “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.” We hide God’s Word in our heart by memorizing verses or even chapters of the Bible, we create a spiritual GPS that can guide us our entire lives.
Memorizing scripture is incredibly helpful. It can give you guidance and direction like nothing else. When God’s wisdom can be remembered at any moment you are in a special position of peace and strength.
You may think it is too difficult to do. But think about how many lines you know by memory of your favorite song or movie. Memorization requires small, focused acts of repetition more than talent or technique.
There is no shortcut to memorizing scripture, it simply takes sustained effort. And it can be accomplished even amid the responsibilities and distractions of everyday life. Start memorizing scripture today — it will bless you in untold ways throughout your life.