Sweet Honey and Sufficiency

These are stacks of bee hives waiting to be delivered to towns and villages in El Salvador. They are made and delivered by Miguel Ventura's group. I mentioned Miguel before in a post about the work he has done in El Barial.

I am thinking about these hives today as we are finishing up the last of the sweet honey we had purchased in Alegria, El Salvador. The honey there is dark. It is colored and flavored by the pollen the bees pick up from the coffee that also grows here. Coffee is not the only thing that grows in this mountain town. Alegria is also known as the flower capital of El Salvador. It is town that God has blessed with a great natural beauty and gentleness.

I have enjoyed the honey since we got home in August and I am sad to be near the end of my supply. The coffee was wonderful for many of the same reasons but it is long gone. For me, it is not just about the exquisite flavor of the honey (the best I've ever had), or the rich, earthy, mellow taste of the coffee. There is something else going on when I ingest these El Salvadoran goodies.

I am always aware of swallowing a little bit of that country and having it be alive in me on a cellular level. To know that I am taking something into my body that was nourished by land that has seen so much emotion, dedication, healing and hope among it's people is humbling to me. When I consider that this honey and this coffee were grown, tended and harvested by individuals and not a multi-national corporation is inspiring to me. To taste the goodness that can come from such a land and such a people makes me long to return. To know that in some way, the process that God uses to make honey (earth, sun, seed, flower, pollen, bee, hive, colony, honey, farmer) actually runs through us and back to the earth makes me feel deeply and personally connected to the country of El Salvador.

It helps me to see that I am part of the cycle of sufficiency that God designed into the world. He created a system that can sustain itself when we allow it to. Not only can it sustain itself, but it also connects us all.

I will miss the honey as I miss the country of El Salvador. My prayer is that the taste and lessons of both remain in my mouth forever.