When Your Trot Becomes a Run

We have been blessed lately to have a family of moose visiting us.  It’s a family of four, daddy bull, mamma cow and two calves.  I wish I could tell you how beautiful they are and I suppose in their own way they are but they are a strange looking animal anyway and it is the time of year when their coat of fur looks like a tangled mess, all blotchy scraggly looking. 

We don’t get to see the daddy much perhaps he is out hunting or off to work or whatever daddy moose do.  He will appear every once in awhile and his family will go to him.  Mamma is always close by somewhere where she can watch the two calves.  I think she could do a better job of doing this.  The two calves are like any children, they are out exploring new things and getting into stuff they aren’t supposed to.

My wife planted a tree eight years ago that she is very fond of.  This tree never seems to grow at least in my eyes.  It has had a tough time since my wife planted it.  When it was tiny the deer thought it was a garden salad and feasted on it regularly.  We put a fence up around it to keep the deer away and it has survived or so it seems.  My wife doesn’t think I water it enough but I guess I won’t have to worry about that anymore.  The sweet little moose calves took care of it yesterday. 

Because I love my wife and know how much she likes this tree, I went to the rescue.  I ran toward the two calves as they were munching, waving my arms frantically, yelling at the top of my lungs, GO AWAY!  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not real brave.  I kept watching for mamma moose.  I also want you to know the two calves aren’t tiny.  I figure they are at least four foot from the ground to the top of their back. 

The reaction I got from the calves was something else.  They just stood there and continued to eat with a glance from time to time as if they were wondering what was up with the strange creature waving its arms and yelling. 

I am the kind of person that is always trying to see what God is saying to me by the things that are happing in my life.  Whether they are trials or moose in the yard I know God is speaking to me. 

I thought perhaps like the moose with their strange appearance and disorderly look how man is the same.  There is really nothing beautiful about us even though in our minds we like to elevate ourselves to places we don’t belong.  When the Lord of Glory looks at us, what does He see? 

Because of the pure and holy nature of God, He can not look at man and their sinfulness and communication was cut off.  Like the moose family our coat of fur is imperfect, ugly, a tangled mess, all blotchy and scraggly looking.  God says, “All our righteousness is as filthy rages”! (Isaiah 64:6)  A statement if studied is more then meets the eye at a glance. 

“For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”  (Romans 8:3-4)

  

It is hard to imagine that One so Holy as God would take on the likeness of sinful man but that is exactly what He did!  “For He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.”  (1 Corinthians 5:21)

As I thought about the tree the calves eat I remembered what the Bible said about the tree, “Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:” (Galatians 3:13)   I thought of the cruel cross where my Savior became a curse for me and how undeserving I am.  Why? I must ask myself would He do such a thing like this for me?  There is only one answer, only one!  John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  It was LOVE!  Real love!  The kind of love only God has the ability to show!

I would be at fault if I didn’t continue the story of God’s love and grace, if left Him on the cruel cross where He was cursed for you and me.  He paid the price for sins debt by His death but the grave could not hold Him, on the third day came the resurrection!    “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?”  (1 Corinthians 15:55) 

Sunday afternoon I noticed mamma moose lying down on the ground taking a rest.  She must have been weary from looking after her two calves, I thought to myself.  There was just something peaceful about watching her laying there chewing her cud.

Suddenly off in the distance daddy moose made his appearance as he trotted across the horizon.  I must say it was quit a sight and I was happy I saw it.  I glanced over to see mamma moose and her reaction.  It was if she was laying there just waiting for him to make his appearance.  I heard daddy moose make a noise and mamma moose began to move.  She jumped up and began trot off toward his location.  Her trot became a run. 

Although these days seem weary and sometimes peace is far from us, we wait for the promise of our Savior on the horizon.  One day I will hear a noise coming from the distance, “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”  (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17) My trot will become a run! A home run!!!

“He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.”   (Revelation 22:20)