Spring has slowly been making its presence known here in southern West Virginia.
Grass is brightening from brown to emerald green. Daffodils have shot up in cheeky clumps and random places. The days trend warmer each week, and on the sunnier ones, the buzz of bees can be heard outside my open windows.
We have a family of carpenter bees making their home under the eaves of the corner of the house. I know… not ideal. We are working on a plan to move them without exterminating them. But until then, they buzz around our front porch, their fat fuzzy bodies hanging limp while their wings whir them through the air.
My twelve year old is fascinated with them. He will let them (he claims it is one special bee in particular) sit in the palm of his hand. The round little bee just rests there as he strokes its fuzzy yellow thorax. He’s a bee charmer, no doubt about it.
When it comes to bees, I’ve always been mostly concerned about the rear end. You know, the part at the back with the little weaponized needle. But for just a minute, let’s talk about another bee body part that is the topic of our next idiom!
Origin Story
Do bees even have knees?
Well, technically, bee legs are jointed, so…yes, bees do in fact have knees of a sort. Very tiny knees. Which is why the phrase “a bee’s knee” was used in the late 1700s with a negative connotation. If someone wanted to express disdain for something or belittle it, they would compare it to a bee’s knee.
Ironically, it means almost the opposite now. The term “the bee’s knees” soared to popularity in the roaring 20s and was used to insinuate something was classy, or top notch. Perhaps this has something to do with how bees carry golden pollen pouches on their legs, making them look like chubby little tycoons busily buzzing about with pockets full of gold and black top hats.
Lesson Time
In puzzling out the phrase, I’ve wondered if there is a lesson here. Even the knees of a bee can be used to teach us. After all, the greatest Teacher himself, Jesus, used vines and trees, sheep and seeds to show us Truth. Why not bee’s knees?
The smallest thing: a tiny hinge joining two sections of the leg of one of the smallest of creatures, yet it’s used in speech to embody something amazing. Something wonderful. Those little legs, carrying the richness of nature to and fro, pollinating the world. So insignificant, yet so important.
What do you do day to day that seems so insignificant?
Are there parts of your day, your duties, that you could compare to the smallness of a bee’s knee?
Paying a bill or washing the same dishes you washed yesterday. The endless piles of laundry or having to drag yourself through another pointless task at work. Mowing the grass just to have it grow again. Lots of little things that never end.
Yet we are told in Colossians 3:17 “And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” Later, Paul goes on to explain that all we do, no matter how mundane or insignificant, when done for the Lord takes on a new significance. A weight more valuable than gold, an eternal inheritance.
So remember this the next time you see a humble bumblebee buzzing around your backyard, or maybe even if you hear this old idiom thrown into conversation. All those things you’re busy about? When done as a service to God, they become classy and top-notch, worth their weight in gold.
They become “The Bee’s Knees”!
Longing & Belonging 
Leave a comment