During a trip through beautiful northern California in the springtime, a party of motorists stopped beside a wide, green meadow to repair a tire. While this work was being done, a young mother and her little boy wandered down the road gathering wild flowers.
Flowers of many varieties were blooming in the sunlit field, and the satiny golden blossoms of poppies reflected the glory of the sun. Bees and butterflies and other winged insects hovered above the flowers, flitting from one to another in search of honey. Wherever the flowers grew, the winged creatures found them and dipped into their bright chalices for sustenance. The busy little hunters not only were receiving food for themselves, but were performing a function valuable to the plant as well, for they were bringing pollen from one blossom to another, thus aiding in the propagation of the plants, which in turn would nourish many insects. The little boy laughed at the clumsy antics of a big bumblebee which tumbled about in a small poppy cup, returning again and again to gather more of the nectar.
Several months later, during the solving of a trying church problem, the mother, a student of Christian Science, thought of the example set by the flowers and insects in that California meadow. She thought of how the flowers in the meadow, in their rightful place, draw the insects so necessary to them, through their fragrance and beauty, and by laying up a store of nectar with which to feed them when they come. Where they all come from no one could accurately guess. Some varieties of insects have been known to visit plants many miles from their natural habitats. Wherever they are needed, wherever there is something for them to receive, the supply and the demand are fulfilled. The flowers which do their work adequately are found by the little denizens of the open. Sometimes one flower may receive several calls from the same insect, as in the case of the bumblebee, and then perhaps a butterfly may come along and rest within the sheltering petals. The sun shines impartially on every plant, and in the evening each one is bathed in dew, all having equal opportunity to be lovely and useful.
