Saturday I went turkey hunting with my old friend T.K. Wetherell. When he arrived at my home an hour before daylight he looked through the window of my study and showed me a remote controlled mechanical turkey decoy. He smiled widely as he activated it and its tail suddenly lifted up and fanned out.
I thought, “What kind of danged contraption is that?”
I opened my front door and he set the thing on my foyer floor and pushed a button on a remote control and it bowed down, turned to the left, and then fanned its tail. He grinned and told me that the local outdoor sporting goods store owner told him it was the latest and greatest thing since homemade biscuits.
Hmmm…
We went to a new hunting place that morning and I told him that this location had been good for at least one old Tom last year, but I hadn’t had time to scout it yet this year, and I had no idea whether or not any turkeys were in the neighborhood at the moment. We arrived before daylight and placed his decoy in the middle of a small food plot and moved back out of sight into the edge of the woods and waited for daylight.
When the sun finally came up, nothing gobbled! I was disgusted and glumly began thinking that we probably just wasted a valuable morning of the short season on this desolate location. Then I heard a turkey gobble. That was good, but unfortunately it sounded to be at least a mile or so away and across the river. I emphasize “across the river”, because it is next to impossible to call a turkey across a river.
It was our only hope though, (and I’m no quitter), so I started calling. I used my mouth call and cranked up the volume and loudly proclaimed my love to that old gobbler. I was pleased to immediately hear it gobble back at me, albeit it was very faint and still a mile away. I called again and again and each time the old Tom answered, I could tell he was getting closer and it became obvious that he was moving in our direction. This went on for nearly an hour.
While that was encouraging, all the while I was gloomily thinking that when he came to the edge of the river he would stop. In fact with all of the rain it was much wider now than normal making it more difficult to entice him to cross it.
To my surprise and jubilation my pleas for him to come join me for a little morning’s fun persuaded him to fly across the river.
Hoo Rah!
He continued intermittingly gobbling as he began walking right down the same road that we had walked in on. Okay now it was getting really exciting because every time he gobbled he sounded fifty yards closer to us. I started softly purring (literally begging in turkey talk) for him to come pay me a visit because I was in the mood for love. That must have got him to running, because literally no more than five minutes elapsed and he gobbled so loudly that it rattled the trees around us. He was standing right on the edge of the field.
My heart was pounding and my mouth was dry. I slowly raised my gun into position as the big gobbler closed to within 60 yards of us and prepared to take this trophy to the Honey Lake “promised land”.
From where the old Tom was standing at the edge of the field, he could now easily get a good look at the decoy standing in the field. Just then T.K. decided to press the remote switch to activate the decoy and the thing instantly bowed down, spun half way around, and fanned its tail.
Silence….
What the #$*???
That old gobbler saw that stupid decoy whirling around like a mechanical rodeo bull and took off lickety split for parts unknown. My trophy gobbler had been “in the bag” and there was no turning back; that is until he saw that spinning, fanning decoy. The decoy is called “Jake and Shake”, or “Shake and Bake” or some such foolishness. All I can say is that old turkey saw it shake, and decided it didn’t want to be baked, and high tailed it the heck out of there.
Gr-r-r-r-r….
I took a bead on that decoy and gritted my teeth; it was all I could do to keep from shooting it. Instead I lowered my gun and balefully glared at T.K. The thought briefly crossed my mind that maybe I should shoot him for bringing that danged contraption, but I thought better of it as I remembered that he is speaking at Honey Lake Church on April 14th and if I shot him I’d have to preach it myself.
Our Honey Lake Church and Worldwide Ministry Easter service was wonderful yesterday. It was the type church service that God intended for us to enjoy together with Him. At church we relished an uplifting service with tremendous song by Santos and Terry Warren; we gave praise to Jesus for His passion, love, and compassion on the cross and of course His sweet resurrection; and we also heard some beautiful personal testimony from Santos and his wife Andrea.
Afterwards we ate some great food, heard more awesome music at the Honey Lake Sunday Gospel Brunch. We then walked around and watched various people go on pony rides, play with some live rabbits at a makeshift petting zoo, engage in games like croquet, and laugh at tons of little tykes running around collecting Easter eggs that weren’t all that well hidden.
To me that is what Sundays should be about; a day of faith, family, friends, and fun.
Approximately 450 people attended and countless of them came up to me and told me how much fun they were having and thanked us for putting it on.
So did everyone have a good time?
Nope, we did have a couple of soured up people complain that there was music being played at the Sunday Gospel Brunch and they just wanted to eat and not hear music.
OMG! Can you believe that music was being played at a Gospel singing brunch? How could that have happened?
BLAH-H-H-H-H-H-H – Get a life!
Some folks complain about everything.
Yikes! Now that I think about it maybe I’m part of that crowd.
Saturday, without question, was the finest turkey calling day I’ve ever experienced in my life and I shall never forget calling that old gobbler and convincing him to cross the river from a mile away. The nearly full moon was glorious as we walked to our stand that crisp morning, owls were hooting and when the night gave way to morning, the sun was absolutely beautiful as it arose and painted rays of sunlight in streaks through the spring foliage. Birds were jabbering, crows were hollering, and squirrels were scampering around.
But instead of relishing the glory of the moment that God afforded me, all I focused on was how that stupid decoy messed up my hunt. That hunt wasn’t about the decoy, or letting that old gobbler slip away to do battle again another day; it was about enjoying the beautiful day that God gave me and His allowing me time and opportunity to have fun with my best friend.
Wow! Those crotchety old folks at the brunch should glean a lesson here and maybe take a look around at the wonderful things that God is unfolding around them…Come to think of it maybe we could all learn from this… I know I have! Selah…
Col. 3:15
And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.