The Fall and the Yellow Jacket

Recently I experienced two uncomfortable events—a fall and a yellow jacket sting. This blog post shares lessons I learned from these two incidents.

While taking my daily lunchtime walk, I crossed a road. When I reached the sidewalk, suddenly I fell down!

Feeling confused, I got up and heard someone in the distance asking if I was okay. Looking down, I noticed my hand was scraped, my pants were torn and my knees were bleeding.

Fortunately, my daughter works in a nearby clothing store. I called her and asked her to put aside a pair of black pants. As I entered the store, my daughter looked at me, took me and the pants into the dressing room and retrieved a first aid kit.

Before I returned to my office, I was all patched up with a new pair of pants. A pair of tattered pants and some skinned knees were all that was left to remind me of the fall.

What I learned from my fall

This taught me a lesson: We all occasionally lose our footing and fall spiritually. The question is, what will we do when we get back up? We have to remember where we can go for help. Psalm 46:1 tells us, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”

God will always be there to help us. He will bandage our wounds, heal our heart and restore our determination to not fall again. We will be left with the memory of how a life can be renewed after a fall.

The yellow jacket

One of my favorite hobbies is working in my garden. I’m currently working on transforming our front garden into a raised flower bed. My first priority was to remove the hedges that lined the steps to my porch. But in doing this, I uncovered a nest of yellow jackets!

The next Sunday as I was working, I made sure to stay away from that corner, since I could see they were more active than usual. I tried hard to keep my distance and not make them feel threatened.

But they obviously did not appreciate my attempt at peace. As I was pulling weeds on the far side of the garden, I felt a sting on my wrist. I had been stung by a yellow jacket!

I went into the house, washed my wrist with cold water and put ointment on it. The next morning, I noticed my wrist was twice the size of the other! It ached, but I could still use it. Several days later the pain was gone, and it was back to normal.

The lesson

There will be occasions in our lives when we think we are being careful and avoiding things that can cause us harm, but things can happen that are outside of our control. Ecclesiastes 9:11 states, “Time and chance happen to them all.”

Knowing the yellow jackets were there, I thought that I had taken every precaution to avoid them. But one still got me. It appears that the only way I could have avoided the sting would have been to not work in the garden at all.

Putting the lessons together

When bad things happen, the key question is how will we respond? Of course, we must first do our part. But then we need to be patient and allow God to heal us or remove the trial in His time—especially when the trial is more serious than a stumble or a bee sting. He assures us, “All things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28). We can know that we are not alone during times of difficulties.

Looking back at these two incidents showed me that some things—like my fall—can be remedied quickly, while others—like my yellow jacket sting—take time and patience. Knowing that our Father and Elder Brother are looking out for us at all times and will be there to help gives us what we need to continue on our journey in confidence.

To learn more about what to do physically after these things happen, read “What to Do If You Fall” and “What to Do for Yellow Jacket Stings.” To learn how to deal with more serious trials, read “Through Many Tribulations.”