Yesterday I decided at the last minute to go sit on my deer stand and see if I could bag a big fat deer, primarily for a friend who has been under the weather who loves deer meat. Plus, my wildlife biologist wants me to thin the herd as well and I’ve only harvested three to date and I knew I needed to get busy to hit our goal of taking twenty.
It was not an ideal afternoon and the wind had begun to pick up. I was walking to my deer stand when I looked to the right and about forty yards away, I saw a deer with its head down eating and it had not seen me. I could not get a clear shot from where I was, so I kept a big pine tree between me and the deer and slowly moved to a place where I had a clear shot. I raised my rifle and BOOM it dropped like a sack of potatoes.
My hunting trip lasted all of five minutes. I walked back and got my loader and drove right to it and rolled it over into the bucket and then hauled it up to my barn and after field dressing it, I put it in my walk-in deer cooler and called my friend. He and another neighbor came over and decided to go ahead and skin and butcher it and in just a few minutes off they went with a cooler full of fresh meat.
As I walked to my house I was thinking, “How easy was that?” Usually, it requires hours of sitting motionless on a deer stand being vigilant, and trying not to get distracted by the freezing cold. Yesterday I didn’t even get to my stand which was about a half a mile further down the road from where I bagged the deer.
Some days are easy and some difficult. I believe God gives us both to prepare us for the battles that this world presents. I was thinking about this concept this morning as I scanned the headlines. I had to look extra hard to see that the Republicans had finally been declared the winner in retaking the House. When the Democrats took the Senate, it was as though the world was coming to an end and was splashed as a major headline in all the media. Go figure!
These days I take it all in stride. I suppose the advantage of getting some age on you is that you expect to win some and lose some. Often, I’m pleasantly surprised as to how good things turned out, and the same for being disappointed when they go sour. Life is sometimes tough and sometimes easy. God gives both and Father knows best. We are charged with keeping the faith through it all. I have a birthday coming up on the 27th of this month and Lord willing I will reach 76. In those years I’ve seen plenty of easy times and an equal number of hard times. It has been quite the adventure. Amazingly I seem to understand more and more why we sometimes struggle. For sure it makes a victory so much sweeter.
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.