Just a lucky day
So last week while writing my blog, I shared that I was in a tree stand and had seen a bear and some squirrels, but no deer. Well, just as I was finishing up my blog, here comes a spike walking by my stand. I let him walk and he went into the thicket behind me where I had seen the bear earlier that morning. I debated whether or not I should rewrite my blog as it was no longer accurate. I decided not to and to leave it as it was. When you start changing things it can change your whole story line. I hit the save button on my phone.
About then I heard a rustle and saw the spike heading back towards me and looking back over his shoulder. "This could get interesting," I thought. "Probably the bear kicking him out of his hidy-hole." A little later I saw a set of horns coming through the brush and they were attached to an old buck with an aggressive and demeaning look about him. I counted ten points. He had the body of an older deer and was probably a wise one, but the need for a power trip left him vulnerable.
He had his ears laid back and would stiff leggedly take a couple of steps towards the little buck and show him his horns. The little buck would trot a couple of steps towards me and stop and then the big one would advance. I decided pretty quickly that if given the opportunity, I would take this buck. Well eventually the little buck came by the stand and a little later, there he was 13 yds from my tree. "Man", I thought,"this is the perfect setup." I drew and focused on a little spot behind the leg.
Usually when I release the arrow, I watch as the arrow hits the spot where I am focusing. I practice almost daily and this seemed like such an easy shot. As I left the arrow fly, it didn't enter into the spot I was focused on. Instead, in my peripheral vision, I saw it flying high. "Oh no", I thought. At the commotion, the little buck darted off. The big buck must have thought that he scared it, as he continued on with his ears laid back. I watched, and even though it didn't act like I hit it, I was certain that I did, but maybe high. I was able to watch it for some time as it made its way down the embankment. Not even a sign of acting like it was hit. After 45 minutes or so, I got down and retrieved my arrow which was sticking in the dirt. Clean as a whistle. The only thing on it was some dirt. I went to where the deer had gone and after considerable searching with no sign of a hit, I considered it a miss.
I went home feeling a little bummed and shot a bunch of arrows at the same type of angle. The arrows flew true. I replayed the scenario through my mind lots of times and just couldn't figure out why I missed. Now I do know that I am human and I miss and make mistakes probably more often than most. At the same time, being human makes me want to ask why.
We have a group of friends that we get together with regularly and share life with. It often involves food, but we also worry and pray for each other's kids and try to be there for each other during hard times. During the good times, we often sit around the fire while the kids romp and play outside. Sometimes we do Bible studies. Recently we studied the book of Jonah together.
Most of us know the “Jonah and the Whale” story from when we were kids. If you read further, you'll find there is more to the story than that.
Jonah is this grumbling old man that complains when his least favored neighbors turn their hearts to God, and God shows them favor. Jonah doesn't like to see them happy and blessed. So when Jonah is sitting under his shady vine on a hot summer day complaining, God let's a worm chew off the leaves, which really brings out the whining and complaining. And then God answers Jonah with, if you care about the vine that you didn't create, why can't I care about the people and animals that I did create.
Well, back to the deer.
So maybe it wasn't all my bad shooting form, lack of practice, all of those things that keep popping up in my mind. God probably pulled a little miracle for the buck and now he's strutting around up in the mountains, letting the other bucks know who's king, and thinking to himself, " I know where I'll drop my antlers this year.”
And I guess I'll try to be content when things don't logically make sense and just be thankful that I can be here and living in the frame. There's a bigger picture out there, and it's not all about me.
