Yesterday I rode around Honey Lake with our plantation manager. We were looking at some timber that had just been cut and then I wanted to see how preparations for the upcoming hunting season were going.
Our manager is a young man and unlike most folks in the country he really enjoys his job. He comes from a very nice family and his father has a top job as a CFO of a major company. No doubt he wonders why his son is working a job where comparatively speaking he makes far less money and works a physically demanding tough job with far longer hours than a job he could easily obtain working in the city at a nice desk.
In his current job he gets dirty, the sun is hot, the rain is wet, and he has to venture out when it’s cold. His job is not for sissies; in that on occasion he sees poisonous snakes, gators, hornets, and uses equipment that if not respected can be dangerous such as chain saws, tractors, bush hogs and the like. He works late into the day and many weekends and spends little time going into town to chase the fillies.
Sounds terrible eh?
Yesterday we drove by a swamp in which an 8 foot alligator has made its home for several years now. He is just about always in the same place sunning himself and I’ve instructed our manager to toss him a piece of bloody chicken occasionally in order to keep him in the vicinity. That way if someone, (usually some city-born/city-bred dude), comes to Honey Lake and wants to see a gator I can take them by his “gator hole” to see this old boy and watch them squeal with delight.
We rounded the bend and saw a big fat whitetail doe standing there looking at us. She must have had a fawn stashed nearby because she didn’t bound away, but just kept nervously looking across the fence into the woods and then anxiously would glance back at us. We eased along trying not to scare her and she was still standing there as we rounded the bend and disappeared out of sight.
We rode for several miles checking on food plots, timber, and hunting stands and I remarked that I hadn’t seen any bears lately. We’ve planted several fields with corn in them and I thought it odd that no bears were coming around. A few minutes later we rounded the bend and there standing in the middle of the field was a shiny black bear that was about 250-300 Lbs. We must have scared that fat rascal because he took off like an oversized bunny rabbit when he saw that truck.
It is interesting that my young manager has such an understanding of what he enjoys the most about life at such a young age. He loves the great outdoors and wildlife. Not a day goes by that he isn’t treated to sights that most will never see. Fields covered in wildflowers, lakes that look like giant reflection pools, waist high native grasses, towering majestic pines, and centuries old live oaks draped with Spanish moss. He sees blue herons quietly stalking minnows around the ponds, turtles sunning on stumps, eagles majestically soaring through the skies, whitetails, wild turkeys, quail, raccoons, ducks, and yes an occasional black bear.
At night he sees black nights and a jillion stars; some of which shoot through the sky like fireballs with tails. The concert he enjoys is when the whippoorwills sing lead and the frogs and crickets sing harmony with an occasional bull gator bellowing out of key. When he turns in, he is tired and sleepy and he doesn’t watch television because he never got around to ordering cable. In the morning he is greeted by a huge orange sun making the mist disappear to rays of sunlight streaking through the trees and landing on the forest floor
Now to some that might sound pretty bleak, but to him, well he tells me that he feels blessed.
I believe our Lord spent some extra time developing Honey Lake. I have no doubt that He takes delight in many of the same things that we do. I often feel His presence as I roam this beautiful place and I can only imagine what it will be like to join Him in heaven and explore that wonderland. If it is better than this, (and I have no doubt that it is), then we are definitely in for a treat.
I came in after my drive and turned on the news and just as it came on I saw the city of Damascus Syria being bombed unmercifully with explosion after explosion. The city appeared to be in ruins before the bombs and after was devastated. People were running through the streets firing machine guns and rocket propelled grenades at each other and it made me sick.
I turned it off and sat there in silence and thought: God help us.
Damascus is the oldest city listed in the Bible. I wonder how it makes God feel to see it ravaged by bloodthirsty barbarians whose religion dictates that they should wantonly kill anyone including women and children simply because they worship our Lord God.
How long will He wait to return for those whom He loves?
The king of Saudi Arabia said over the weekend that the violence that is being experienced in the Middle East will be in Europe in one month and the United States in two. Honey Lake seems so far away and so peaceful. I suppose in time that it too will be destroyed along with everything else. I’m glad that I’ve made my peace with the Lord and that I know He will take me somewhere that no bombs will ever fall; a perpetual Honey Lake if you will. I hope everyone reading this finds peace with their Lord today . . .
Psalm 2:1
Why are the nations so angry? Why do they waste their time with futile plans?
Psalm 21:11
Though they plot evil against you and devise wicked schemes, they cannot succeed.
September 2, 2014 – Click here to listen