In the city of Gondar in northern Ethiopia is a 17th century church Debre Birhan Selassie.
In 1888, Muslim raiders from Sudan sacked the city and burnt down all the Christian churches. This one, though, when they approached it, they were chased off by a terrible swarm of bees and decided to move on to pillage a next village.
The church remains to this day and features hundreds of brilliant angel faces painted on the ceiling.
C.S. Lewis, speaking through Lucy in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe comments on the red-breasted robin: “They’re good birds in all the stories I’ve ever read. I’m sure a robin wouldn’t be on the wrong side.” It strikes me that, in similar fashion, if the robin is a good bird, one parallel is that the bee is a good insect – perhaps the best of bugs.
