Lessons from the Woods #2 of 3

Other than the dark and my misguided fears, I really do love mornings in the woods.

I love the fresh cool crisp in the dark air.

I love to watch the woods slowly come alive.

Darkness slowly slips away. The light, hardly noticeable at first, quietly replaces the dark. A bird moves. A squirrel runs across a tree branch. The world comes alive.

Sitting in my deer stand early one morning it was bone-chilling cold. It seemed that the very coldness of the morning carried every sound. That's when I heard it. It was the crunch of leaves underfoot. Or more accurately, it was a crunch under hoof.

Across the field, through the retreating darkness, I caught a glimpse of him. He was an antlered deer. And he was looking right at me.

I tell myself to be still. My heart is racing. (In my head I'm already visiting the taxidermist and telling him that getting a trophy buck is on my bucket list). He keeps looking at me. I'm frozen (In more than one-way). He continues looking. I ask myself, what can he possibly see? I'm still. I'm camouflaged. I'm barely breathing.

And that's when I see it: a puff of crystallized breath escaping my mouth.

There it is again. Another. And another. And another.

I'm like a steam locomotive.

My excitement, combined with the sub-zero temperature, combined with the growing tension; led to one puff after another, after another, after another, after another.

Steam locomotive!

And then the buck was gone.

Just that fast.

Most all of this happened in an instant.

It was over.

James 4:14 says:

What is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.

Life is brief. Do you seriously contemplate the truth of that word and the implication therein? When you do, you'll begin to see life differently. You will begin to think along the lines of "What an amazing gift is life! I can't even waste one morsel of the gift. I will make the most of this moment."

Today is a vapor. In an instant it will be gone. Breath deeply. Exhale joyously.

This is the day the Lord has made ...

Have you thanked your Father?