The Gift

In a matter of a couple of minutes, my Saturday morning in the woods went from uneventful and rather chilly to unexplainable joy. Having seen only one deer by 9:30 and getting cold as the wind picked up, I decided to rattle one more time before climbing down at 10:00. Shortly after rattling, I heard an unmistakable crashing from behind me, followed by a "growl" of a dominant buck, that of which I had only ever heard before on TV! The buck did not show himself though, even after I grunted at him, staying downwind in the thicket. In desperation, I said quietly "Lord help me here".
At that very moment, a spike buck chased a doe underneath my stand, heading in the direction of the dominant buck. As the spike grunted, the dominant buck charged into the open, but suddenly locked up on the trail in which we had walked before light, with its nose to the ground. Realizing the potential brevity of this opportunity, I quickly centered the cross hairs and dropped him where he stood. A total gift, as I don't believe that this buck would have showed himself if that "divinely placed" spike and doe had not appeared.

I have replayed this scenario in my head over and over since Saturday, and God has showed me how similar it is to His story - of a undeserved, unexplainable, matchless gift. See, we are constantly working to prove ourselves, trying to make ourselves worthy, and are rather disciplined in what we do, but it will only get us but so far, just as my rattling, grunting, passing of small bucks for years, only got the buck I was after but so close and yet still unattainable. It is only for God's gift of His Son Jesus, at the height of our desperation, that we can now obtain the "trophy" of eternal life with God in heaven. But now, just knowing about it won't get you there, just as me knowing that the buck was nearby didn't put him on my wall. Once I understood the gift that was given to me and that my objective was in sight, I had to act, had to shoot, which is almost instinctive for us hunters to do in the moment of truth. Ironically, God's gift in Jesus is easy for us to act on as well, yet so many of us do not ask for His help or take Him up on His gift when it is offered to us.

Do you need to pull the trigger today, and harvest God's gift in Jesus Christ while the opportunity is presenting itself? - GE