Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Bambi is Winning.

Genesis 9:3 (ESV)
Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything.
I take the above verse very seriously. Esau and Nimrod are Biblical heroes for me. (Though I do wonder greatly why anyone would name their child Nimrod.) I mean these two actually made it into the Biblical record as great hunters. I know a man who made it into the Boon and Crocket, but these guys are in the Bible because they were great hunters! Now it is fairly obvious from the Biblical record that meat had been part of the human diet preceding this. Abel sacrificed “clean animals”, and sacrifices were eaten, they were feasts shared with God. This verse allows us to hunt all.
So far I have only managed to apply the above verse to my life with the hunting of upland game. And do I love upland game hunting. I live for it. There is nothing like a hike through the woods on a fall day, carrying a shotgun and shooting at Grouse flying through the trees, exhilarating. Nothing like it except maybe hiking hells canyon for ten miles in the dead of winter through sleet and rain looking for Chukar, and watching dogs go on point, birds erupting from the ground only to fold in midair drop about a quarter mile down a canyon, to be retrieved by the same dogs who think there is nothing better in the world than to get a dead bird for their master. And women wonder why men like dogs. (The chauvinist side of me wants to say something more, about a fridge full of beer, but it would be uncouth. And I might have to sleep on the couch after I said it. Men only where pants outside the house anymore, it seems, which may be why we spend so much time hunting.)
However, this year I thought I might try my luck on some big game, join the great American tradition and hunt deer. Everything is true that they say of deer. They know when it is legal for you to shoot them. They leave all previous haunts. They hide without food and water for a week. They even know that you are only after the ones with antlers. These deer will jump out in front of your car in a heartbeat for no reason. They don’t value their life at all. But they will hide if for nothing else to mock you the day after season. In any case I haven’t seen but a few does all week. Every moving thing may be food for me, but if it has antlers it is going to make me work at it. Well heading back out later today. Don’t know what the rest of the week holds. Hopefully Bambi won’t win, I really wanted his Grandfather, but I’ll take him at this point. I just want to eat some meat!
I was serious about the prayers folks:)

4 comments:

Jonathan said...

As they say, a bad day fishing still beats any day in the office. (I suppose the same goes for game hunting.) So enjoy God's creation anyway!

For me, there's nothing like a good cut of venison that's done up right--only, I still haven't found it yet! (I like my meat under plastic wrap.)

Bror Erickson said...

Oh it beats a day in the office

mollo said...

Our retired pastor had a special hunting stole gifted to him. It had hunter's green camo on one side and the neon orange on the other. He would wear it the Sunday before hunting season began and "remind" the hunters not to miss church just to hunt.

Bror Erickson said...

Mollo,
Missing church in order to go hunting doesn't make any sense. God is God of the animals too.
Of course here in Utah I think the majority of the population is better off missing church than going on any given Sunday for what ever reason.