The Deer

I watched helpless yesterday, as three dogs killed a deer on the other side of  the rushing water.  No sticks to throw.  No voice loud enough to drive them off.  No stones on the muddy bank to throw.  No gun.  And, in the end, there was no hope for the deer as she thrashed bellowing like a bear.  In a short time she would be no more.  And by the time I had arrived her legs had become useless.  Nothing I could have done would change her situation.   I ponder her fate.  How horrible to end her graceful life at the teeth of such ravaging. 

Now I ponder my own future when I too will encounter my last moments.  As all men will do.  Will I have lived for the Glory of He who never dies again?  What pain He endured at the hands of hateful men.  And He did it for us all.  Will I embrace my certain time as He? 

This Deer might have been food on the table of a hunter.  If the circumstances of her death were different.  And yet, look.  How has her death become a testimony for all of us.  Without her terror, this post would never had become.  Now we are left with a ponderous task.  Shall we pitty her and forget her in a moment as we go about our day’s tasks?   Or will we allow that her death impact us toward God’s throne.  May the Lord allow that her testimony of life entering death become a reminder to us that we too are bound for the same place.  And yet we are man, we are not animal.  We make choices.  She could not but obey.  And what is there in your life which the Lord might use to wake you from slumber?  Surely there are more testimonies regarding death.  This whole world yells out the message of God: “I made you that you might seek My face.  Look around you and listen to what is before you.  You will soon come to Me and receive the reward of your life.  What do you say regarding My Son?”

Lord, give me strength to see Your way.  I wish to do Your Holy will for the sake of Your Holy name.  Glorify Yourself in this man.  My time is surely coming.  And I, like all men, have never been to that place.  We are like grass in our way.  And You have determined the end of our days here.  This is a place of testing.  May I move through this place with the power of Your Glorious hand.  May Your Will be done forever.

By His Grace.