What lesson does Lily learn from the Black Madonna in The Secret Life of Bees?

You might like to re-read Chapter Thirteen of this
excellent coming-of-age novel, in which Lily and the Daughters all celebrate the
festival of Mary by rubbing honey into the statue as a preservative. Having just found
out about her mother the night before, and how she had abandoned her, Lily had also just
thrown honey all over the Black Madonna by breaking jars of honey on her to express her
rage. Having done this, she is able to engage in an act of restoration, as she learns
that honey is actually a preservative. After her turmoil and agony, she finally is able
to reach a place of contentment and peace:

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We were preserving Our Lady, and I was
content--for the first time since I'd learned about my mother--to be doing what I was
doing.

Lily also finds that
rubbing honey into the Black Madonna transforms her perspective on life, as she says
when she comes to clean her hands. Instead of being a person full of violence and anger
that breaks things and smashes them up, she realises through her act of rubbing honey
into the Black Madonna that she can become a person who restores and preserves rather
than destroys:

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One by one the Daughters dipped their hands into
a bucket of water and washed off the honey. I waited till the very last, wanting to keep
the coating of honey on my skin for a long as I could. It was like I was wearing a pair
of gloves with magic properties. Like I could preserve whatever I
touched.

The Black Madonna,
therefore, just like August, helps Lily to change her view of herself from somebody who
is not lovable and who is an agent of violence to somebody who is lovable and who has
the capability to preserve and restore, rather than destroy.