Turkey season came to an end this weekend and what an exciting ending it was. I called up an old Tom from a considerable distance with him gobbling and answering my plaintive calls practically every time his foot hit the ground. It was super exciting to see him finally appear and then come walking down the road and alternate going into a full strut, come out of it, and stick his neck out in front of him and gobble like crazy. When he was within twenty yards my hunter shot and flat missed.
That’s okay; that old Tom will be even bigger next year and perhaps the hunter will have learned a valuable lesson and will have practiced taking a deep breath, aiming, and squeezing that trigger prior to their next hunt.
Now that it’s all over, I should be bummed out, (after all I love turkey hunting with unbridled passion). Nope, a good friend came over yesterday afternoon and we took my pontoon boat out and went fishing in Honey Lake. I’d put some oak limbs in the lake back last fall in order to attract fish and attract fish they did. We caught them left and right, almost as fast as we could cast.
My fish biologist told me that we have too many fish in some lakes and not enough in others, so we transferred our bountiful catch to some of the other ponds throughout the plantation that needed a little fish boost and we also took some time to fish in a few of them while we were there. It was great fun and by late evening I was pooped.
Hmmm . . . I didn’t even think about turkey season coming to an end one time; instead I’ve moved on to my next passion, fishing. While we were fishing we planned our strategy for going fishing in the early mornings and maybe getting some lights hooked up on the boat and fishing nights too. Overall we are going to have some grand old fun this spring fishing season and I’m looking forward to it.
I’m reminded that when some things in our lives come to a temporary close that we should look for the things that are beginning to bloom and open up. Instead of wailing, weeping, yowling, crying, screeching, screaming, yelping, and moaning, we can quietly accept life on its terms and like the song says, “We can sing in the sunshine and we’ll laugh every day”.
I have a friend whose elderly grandmother is very ill and just the very thought of grannie dying and leaving sends her into a tizzy.
Hmmm . . . Now old grandma who is a Christian is going “home”, (and that is where she wants to go – Her old body is worn out and she is ready to get settled into her new one that is free from defect).
I said to my young friend, “Don’t you know that Jesus didn’t create us to live forever on this planet of sin? He wants to spend time with us too; only our next home will be with Him be in paradise and we’ll be eternally separated and free from the sickness, sadness, death, and sin slime of this fallen world. That is a good thing for your grandmother, and not a bad”.
For sure my friend will miss old grannie, but she can relive those good times they had together and the fond and wonderful remembrances will never die. I can assure you that I will relive practically every day spent in the woods this past turkey season of old gobblers fooled and those who made a fool out of me. I can grin and shake my head with equal fervor, but at the end of the day I’m smiling.
I wish I could go turkey hunting this morning, but the season has expired and a new season has begun. I’m over it and have already moved on to my next adventure. We all should do likewise when the things we love have passed for the season.
Take life in stride my friends. Don’t mourn forever and a day about things that have passed us by; find a new love and exult your passions to the “nth degree”.
We need to understand that in life everything is as God has made it and it is good, and not necessarily as it appears to us. We are sometimes so taken up with ugly thoughts and cares of worldly things, that we often don’t see God’s hand in them. We need to remind ourselves that we were not born for ourselves. We were born to do good in this life (and enjoy doing so) and to love our God.
Life is short and uncertain so we better get cracking.
Eccl 3:1
There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:
a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.
What do workers gain from their toil? I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil — this is the gift of God. I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear him.