Deer Season

Deer, in Quilt-Colored Meadow. 

Friends, Good Friday steals my words. I offer you this piece instead. 

Ungulates


I see them most mornings, these days. Driving along our canyon road as it finds a way through the chaparral forest, I’ll spot the flick of a white tail beneath the oak canopy, or the twitch of a rabbit-shaped ear amid the tall grass, already turning golden.

In twos and threes I see them, statues in the deep shade of the hollow’s edge, or standing with necks stretched down to earth to feed. They ripple at the sound of my truck on the road, look up.

Even the deer have the sense to look up.


Because they delight me, I tally the sightings on a board in my kitchen. We’ve almost matched last year’s total, and it’s only April.

In the fellowship hall on Sunday I mention them to Dennis, who knows the name of every plant in the chaparral’s seasonal quilt. Dennis says it means the mountain lions are not nearby  but I think even the mountain lion gets a meal now and then.


And that’s how the deer remind me. I need a Savior. 

6 For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. 8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. 11 And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.
Romans 5:6-11 (NASB)