I got up early this morning and just as it was breaking dawn positioned myself high up on a hill and listened for turkeys gobbling. The spring gobbler season opens in a couple of weeks and I wanted to get my bearings as to where they were roosting in order to bag a big tom on opening day. Just as the sun began appearing in all of its fiery-red glory I was treated to a symphony of turkeys literally gobbling from every direction.
Oh my gosh! It was magnificent!
Now admittedly to the untrained ear I’m sure it sounds like a cacophony of strange harsh noises, but to a dyed-in-the-wool turkey hunter like me it was melodious harmony and music to my ears.
As I stood there listening, I saw a whitetail doe meandering down the hill below me. I watched her with binoculars as she browsed along nipping at budding leaves on practically every bush she passed as she headed towards her bedding area. Man what a glorious morning; it was a nice 45 degrees and from my vantage point I could see the mist eerily rising above Hooking Bull Lake.
I caught myself smiling and conversing with God; thanking Him for this wonderful treat. The thoughts of our tanking economy, ISIS attacking innocent people, North Korea launching a nuke, Obama signing another executive order, candidates acting like bad mannered school kids, poverty, racism, addiction, sex trafficking of little kids, and all the rest were far from my mind.
I think if someone doesn’t ever stand in a magnificent forest, or get out on the ocean in a boat at dawn they are missing life as God intended it to be. You can have your New York City and its sirens and throngs of people scurrying along. As for me, I will stand beneath a giant live oak and listen to the forest come alive or scoot along on a boat through azure blue waters looking for birds diving down for scraps left by feeding fish.
Yep a little piece of heaven on earth awaits us all. I hope you can get out one day soon and try it for yourself. There we can find Hope in God, and there we can praise His Holy name, confess our sins, and pray for healing! Though we can pray anywhere, being in the forest at daylight just seems to bring me closer to God and further away from the evil darkness that tries to block out the light.
Psalm 42:11
Why are you cast down oh my soul?
And why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God;
For I shall yet praise Him . . .
March 8, 2016 – Click here to listen