Psalm 42:1
As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul pants for you, O God.
I have never seen anything like it
before. Suanne and I were driving home from having dinner with some friends in
another town. It was early evening and the sun was low on the horizon. At that
time of the night, I always become very watchful for deer along the side of the
road. We were following a railroad line in northern Minnesota, heading back to
North Dakota, when I caught sight of a couple of deer grazing along the railroad
cut. As we get closer, it turned out to be a dozen. Not much farther down the
road we came on another large group of deer. This time we counted 40! We began
counting in earnest and by the time we hit the North Dakota border, we had
counted 115 deer. If that wasn’t enough, just on the other side of the border,
we came upon a field with at least 100 deer grazing! It was an amazing sight.
When
I was a boy growing up in northeastern Ohio, seeing a deer was a rare and
exciting experience. To see three or four deer together in a field was amazing.
My experience yesterday blew away every other experience I have ever had of seeing
deer. The experience that I have had that comes the closest is when we were in
Custer State Park, in South Dakota, and saw the buffalo herd. Seeing a field
covered with deer was beyond anything I have ever imagined.
It
has been a long winter here in North Dakota. Now as spring is beginning to make
its presence felt, the world is coming alive again. In addition to the many
deer that I observed as we drove, I also saw two Bald Eagles, a Peregrine
Falcon, and a fox. The animal kingdom is coming alive, even if the snow refuses
to release its grip on the countryside.
There
is something about the coming of spring that revives us as well. Through the
long months of winter, we endure. We go about our lives with determination, but
also a certain heaviness. But when spring arrives, it is like a weight is taken
off of our shoulders. Our spirits are lifted. There is more bounce in our step.
We begin to shed layers of clothes like animals shed their winter coats. We
start to feel freer and our spirits rise.
When
I saw all of the deer out in the field, I thought of the opening line of Psalm 42.
The deer have been living in survival mode for a long time. As the snow melts
and the temperature rises, they are revived. In a similar way, the long winter
can drain us emotionally and spiritually. We can slip into survival mode,
putting our heads down and enduring life. We long for a spiritual spring, a
renewal of our sense of God’s goodness. It is time to awaken from our winter
hibernation and encounter our world again. Early spring gives us an opportunity
to refresh our spirits before the busyness of summer takes over again.
Our
world is coming alive. Soon the grass and fields will be green There will be new
life all around us. Just as our physical world is coming alive, so it is time
for us to come alive spiritually. It is time to let the warmth of God’s light
to penetrate our hearts and melt away the hardness caused by the harshness of
our world. It is time to see our world through fresh eyes, with hope and joy.
It is time to revel in the goodness and the grace of our God.
2 Corinthians 4:6,
16-18
For
God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light
shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God
in the face of Christ.
Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away,
yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary
troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So
we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is
temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.