DEER SEASON
Every deer hunter in Oklahoma has longed for this day, the opening day of deer season. What if we had that same passion for the return of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!
What if we woke up every day early like a deer hunter, even if it was cold and rainy, and had a passion to look for where Jesus was going to show up. What if we daily expected Him to show Up! Not if, but when . Keeping our scope on the CROSS hairs, with nothing but JESUS as our target. Even when we can’t see Him, we learned to keep the eyes of our heart focused on our coming King!
As a kid you play hide and seek. When my 18 year old son was 3. I had just become the head coach at Oklahoma Wesleyan University. It was October 2007. We were hosting our first ever midnight madness game to kickoff the season and stir the excitement. Kade decided to steal the show. All of my kids and their friends were playing hide and seek. After searching for a while, nobody could find Kade. After an extended period of time, my wife came to me extremely concerned. You see there is a pond in front of the gym and there were a ton of people at the gym we did not know to watch the midnight madness. Satan was having a good time flooding Sheri’s mind with fear.
We were just a few minutes from the start of the game, but when I saw the concern in my wife’s eyes, I did not continue with my normal routine or plan. I told my team to split up and let’s seek to find Kade. It actually went from seek to hunt mode as we were determined to my son! What if we had that same determination to find God’s son, Jesus!
We said a prayer and then the hunt began, as players were running around the pond, hunting under the bleachers, and up and down the halls, my little gym rat, much like Jesus in the boat during the raging storm, was resting peacefully.
Sheri felt helpless, but listened to that small voice called the Holy Spirit inside her and walked into my office. The door into my office area opens to a corner and it was already open. As Sheri walked in, that calm voice inside her said to turn around and look behind that door. There behind the door rolled up in a little ball asleep and as peaceful as if he was in his mothers arms lay Kade.
This story describes how we should be waiting upon the Lord! Like a deer hunter on opening day of deer season. We should shift from seeking to hunting mode and do so with hopeful expectation that our Savior will show up any minute. Why? Because I have read His Love Letter to Us and He promised that He would soon be returning for us.
Kade used to play hide and seek, today he sits in a deer stand with high hope and expectation of seeing soon what he is looking for! As we mature as followers of Christ, we should become hunters for Christ!
My prayer for you today is found in Psalms 20:4. “May He grant you your hearts desire and fulfill all your plans.” Don’t be so focused on what that really doesn’t matter, that you lose focus on what does.
Photo by Saad Chaudhry on Unsplash