When I was a teenager growing up in the northeast here in the United States one of my greatest memories was hunting Partridge (Grouse) with my Dad. We hunted an old discontinued county road that went past our house that cut through the woods to an old farm where the buildings had long disappeared and the farmers had sold it off to some friends of ours who just used it for recreation at the time and to store their excavation company’s equipment. However there was one field that they did not use and it had the old farms apple orchard still intact where it was good bird hunting and deer hunting. Every fall my dad and I would make our way up the old winding road and shoot birds as we went. Then we could go to the apple orchard and usually would tag out for the day on our birds. Then we would head back to the house and cook our harvest for dinner. I remember thinking then it was a meal fit for a king.
As a young man my parents and my grandpa taught me that everything we need the Lord God provided for us from the nature that surrounded us. For example the birds and the deer provided meat. The wood provided heat for the house. Lastly the ground through our dug well provided the water for us to drink. I try to instill this with my children today.
When thinking back on this period of time in my childhood I am reminded of when God’s people were wandering around in the wilderness in their disobedience to the Lord. However, even in that disobedience the Lord God provided for their hunger by sending quail and manna; the Lord God provided dew to quench their thirst. In other words God provided for their needs with that which surrounded them. The Lord God does this very thing today. If we think about it even the cross that our Savior hung on those many years ago to set us free was taken from the natural environment and it was through that cross that we received redemption for our sins and we were given the gift of eternal life.
So as outdoors-man(woman) when we go afield the next time to hunt wither it be for birds or big game may we take time to look and see the providing hand of Almighty God in the nature that surrounds us.
How fitting for us to to close this blog with "Just I Am-I come Broken to Be Mended" from YouTube.
As always look unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our Faith.
