this is probably not a big deal for most of you but it brings a smile to my boys and my faces each day.
one of the cool things concerning where we live is that while we are in a suburban area our backyard is connected to 20 to 30 acres of pine forest. there is a great deal of wildlife in those woods. we regularly see white tail deer a 100’ or so away from our house but they never seem to get any closer. that is until they found the corn that i put out for our squirrels (of which we have a large number of very fat, clumsy, and curious ones). now they have started coming into our backyard every afternoon around 4 p.m. it’s always easy to tell when they are there because montana, our oldest basset hound, goes crazy. in fact, noah has started calling her “deer alarm” instead of montana because you can pretty much instantly tell when the deer arrive based on the tone of montana’s barking.
i have always loved watching deer. i was never much of a hunter (fishing is so much better because you can release the fish) but i have at least been deer hunting a few times in my life. when i would be in a tree stand and see deer i would always have a very hard time pulling the trigger because they are just so beautiful. in fact, i was only ever able to pull the trigger once.
tomorrow is darwin day (the 200th birthday of charles darwin). for some people, on both sides of the fence, this is a huge thing. for some darwinism proves that there is no GOD, while for others evolution is a messed up theory that no true believer in CHRIST could ever accept. i believe both sides are wrong. for truth in advertising purposes i will let everyone know that i hold to an age/day view of creation. i don’t know the exact processes through which life came about on earth. yet when i see elegance and beauty in nature i’m not usually very concerned about about the exact procedure through which life came about. instead, when i see things in nature that make my “heart smile” (a saying stolen from a few of pam and i’s friends) i am more concerned about the “why” of life. why is life here? why are their moments of joy that seem to shout of something larger? why does beauty ring true? “how” questions are fine but i tend to think that the “why” questions are often the most important.
when i watch the deer that come and visit our backyard (a.k.a steal our squirrel corn) i am simply reminded that there is a great GOD of beauty and truth WHO loves HIS creation and wants to be in a loving relationship with all parts of it. however GOD created all that is HE did it for us to know, love, and enjoy HIM. I hope you do.
Cool.