Dependence

I finally got them!




A really neat time, to say the least. It was a bit cold, but well worth it for the beauty of seeing those deer simply grazing. I don't know how those first two didn't see me for so long. I was in plain sight, for that was the only way to get good shots. I had a good 15 to 20 minutes of just standing there photographing them. It was beautiful!

I saw all three deer again a few days later, and they saw me--and fled. 

Shortly after their departure, I heard several gunshots from the direction they had gone. Though I don't think they were shot (I think the shooter was target practicing), it made me think. These deer left a place where they were perfectly safe and ran to a place that was not safe at all. On our property, deer don't have to worry about being shot. But as soon as they step away, their lives are in constant danger.

If they had realized how safe they were on our property, and how unsafe they were off of our property, I think they would have chosen to stay where they were. Their ignorance led them to endanger their lives.

How much we can be the same way! If we only realized that our greatest security is in the arms of our Lord, trusting in His strength for our daily sustenance, surely we would not get into the fixes and jams we get ourselves into. But often we don't realize this, and take our lives into our own hands. We try to go it alone, to do it ourselves, to follow our own plans, and we invariably fail.

God's strength is an infinite and available source of protection and help. Let us learn to live by the strength of His might, and to "not lean on our own understanding" (Proverbs 3:5). If we trust in anything else, we only put ourselves in danger. Only by trusting in the LORD our God can we stand.

"Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God. They collapse and fall, but we rise and stand upright" (Psalm 20:7-8 ESV).