The Deer Hunter

I was baking in the kitchen.
My youngest daughter called to ask if she could bring some friends for dinner.
Just about now, most college students are missing good old home cooking.
Of course, I said, how many friends do you want to bring?

Would ten of us be too many? She asked knowing what I would say.
Ten is fine; it will be fun, I said and meant it.
I love when my children want to come home.
I love when they want to bring their friends as well.

I enjoy hearing whatever is on their hearts.
I enjoy listening to their dreams.
I laugh at the funny stories they share.
I empathize with the amount of college work they have placed upon them.

I remember.
I would not trade places with them.
It is a wonderful yet confusing time of life.
They are in a waiting place before they begin the rest of their life.

Or are they?

I remember reading something once that has stayed with me all these years.
Humans are the only ones that when lost, run faster.
I always sandwich that quote with one of J.R.R Tolkien’s quotes.
Not all those who wander are lost.

How do we balance the two?
Though they seem opposed, the quotes are not diametrically different.
We are not necessarily lost when we wander.
However, when we are lost we tend to run faster rather than stay still.

It was while I was baking for my daughter and her friends that I saw stillness in action.
I saw movement as I was standing at the sink in the kitchen.
The movement blended in with the surroundings.
It was a hunter with a bow and arrow over his shoulder.

Our county has a deer problem.
Each year the deer population has increased tremendously.
There is a designated season for deer hunting.
Our township has its own deer management association.

A select group of hunters participate in this group.
With permission, they set up a tree stand in your woods.
Because there are so many traffic accidents involving deer, we gave them permission.
There is quite a bit of landscaping damage to the homes since the deer are hungry.

A few homes scattered throughout our small development gave the hunters permission to hunt.
When the trees were still in leaf, I had no idea where the tree stand was located.
Now that the leaves have fallen, I can see the small stand way up in a tree.
The tree is in direct line of my kitchen window.

I decided to watch the hunter climb the tree.
He was way back in the woods and he was perfectly camouflaged.
However only his movement allowed me to see him.
He put metal grips along the side of the tree and climbed up into the branches.

He stood there for a moment surveying the woods.
There is a pattern and a specific route that the deer take each day.
The hunters know that.
There has been as many as twenty deer on our lawn at any given time.

The meat of any deer they hunt is offered to the homeowner.
My husband and I refused it and wanted it to be given to the food bank.
Since the hunters come before dawn or before dusk, I have no idea of their success.
Their truck or jeep is clearly marked and an email is sent so we know someone is in our woods.

I saw the hunter arrive and climb the tree.
While I continued to bake and prepare our meal, he still sat there.
When I was done everything I had to do, he still sat there.
For hours and hours he sat perfectly still high up in the tree.

He sat watching.
He sat listening.
Perhaps it is a prayer time for him.
Perhaps the stillness and the quiet is good for his soul.

I told my husband later that I was amazed at the stillness of the hunter.
I remembered a sign in a country store that made me laugh.
A woman never knows the patient man she married until she sees him fish.
That could be said of hunters as well.

Can it be said about the rest of us on any given day?
What about our wandering?
What about our lost-ness?
What about our patience and stillness?

Be still and know that I am God. (Psalm 46:10)

We all go through wilderness times.
Times when we are lost in the proverbial woods of this world.
Times when everything looks the same and we don’t quite have our bearings.
Times when we blend in with our surroundings to the point of the unrecognizable.

In those times we need to remember we are seen.
In those times we need to remember that we are not lost.
In those times instead of running faster and deeper into the unknown, we must stand still.
We stand still and know that we will be found.

We will be found by the One who sees.
We will be found by the One who hears.
We will be found by the One who knows where we wander.
We will be found by the One who seeks and always finds the lost.

We are a found people.
We tend to pull up our bootstraps and try to get out of our lost-ness on our own.
That is impossible.
The woods of this world are not a pull yourself up by your bootstraps kind of woods.

The woods of this world are a, be still and know that I am God, kind of woods.
We are never, even for one moment, unseen.
As the hunter had his bow and arrow, so we have our Sword.
The Sword, which is His Word, is our weapon.

We can feast on the meat of His Word.
We can drink from the Living Water.
We can be still and rest in the knowledge that we will be found.
All who wander to Him are not lost.

All who wander to Him are saved.
Be still.
He will find you.
The woods of this world are no match for the One who goes after the lost.

Selah!
Rest!