Oh, Deer, to be in Heaven

I live a bit of a distance from my job, so in the beginning I bought some maps and began to trace ways that might be quicker or shorter. As it joyfully turns out, the shorter and quicker way includes a daily drive through a portion of Trexler Game Preserve (now Trexler Nature Preserve).  This has added a lovely dose of peace and beauty to my schlep to work and a calming effect after a stressful day, especially the part that goes through Geiger covered bridge.  There are streams, trees, apple orchards, and it's close enough to work that I've driven there over my lunch hour, pulled a chair out of my trunk and sat in the sun next to a creek and just let the peace of God's creation wash over me.  I am blessed!

I wish I had the ability of a true photographer to somehow convey the peace of sitting in the sun -- or if its too hot, the shade -- and just spend a few moments away from the demands of people, to replace the ringing phone with the sound of birds and running water.  Some of you may know.  Those of you who do not, I'm sorry.  Try to find it, even if it's a recording and a darkened room for 10 minutes and pretend.  For me, it's a taste of heaven!


Growing up in my home town, it was very rare to see any deer, or any wild animals except squirrels or rabbits, which were very common and dull.  Or perhaps I was too clumsy or noisy in my treks through the woods to see anything more interesting!  My mother said I never, but NEVER, stopped talking as a child. She would eventually just say "yes...yes...uh huh..." until she heard me say excitedly "Really??!! I CAN??!!" and then she'd have to back things up and find out what she'd just agreed to.  I find that to be 
very maligning to my character, who knows what important things I may have said that we may never benefit from today, what genius may have escaped unnoticed.  :-)

OK, so anyway, a bonus for me is what I might see along the way.  Wild turkeys, and the day before yesterday I saw a beautiful male ring-necked pheasant, his plumage just radiant in the morning sun.  (Actually, I almost pegged the silly thing with my car as he ran across two parallel roads, but he made it across safely.)  [I found out later there is a farm not far away that raises them, then lets them go and you can go with your dog and gun and hunt them.  Is this really sporting???  I mean, they've grown up in the cage, someone opens the door and shoves them out, and they mill around until someone chases them a distance, sics dogs on them  and shoots them.  After all, how big is a pheasant brain to figure this strategy out?  It's just kind of hanging around, trying to figure out why it's OUTSIDE the cage now, and what's going on, and BLAM!  BLAM!  BLAM!  Just doesn't seem right, somehow.  And I'm not anti-hunting.]

Anyway, back to the nice things ... once I and a friend were driving up a hill in the preserve and I stopped the car suddenly because trotting next to the road was a young red fox.  It stopped, and I stopped, fearing it would cross the road in front of me.  We both regarded each other, motionless.  Then it began to trot again, and I slowly followed in the car.  We went parallel for awhile, then with barely a glance, the fox turned off and trotted away.  What a beautiful animal, and seeming without any fear at all.  A few weeks later, about a quarter mile away, I saw an even younger fox trotting down the CENTER of the road ahead of me, glancing back every so often as if I were the intruder, until it finally veered off into some high grass.  Saw him a few days in a row, always within 10 feet of the same place, but I never managed to catch a photo, which is amazing considering some of the contortions I sometimes will go through to GET a photo.  And, of course, though common, I smile to see squirrels and chipmunks scamper around.  I'll frequently see hawks perched, or circling, and once I saw one make a kill.


My favorite, though, must be deer, with their beauty and grace.  Their legs are so long and fragile, their eyes so calm, yet they bound away with such grace at the slightest provocation.  Just these few pictures I've taken are three out of dozens and dozens of attempts.  As much as I love their quiet peace and beauty, they have no trust at all of me.  Some of my best shots -- and my only three sightings of bucks with racks in my life, I was just not quick enough with the camera.  They exist only in my mind, as my slightest movement or approach of my car, sends the dear deer running off in deer fear.

 I suppose I have a view in my mind that in heaven I will be able to be friends with deer and fox, squirrels and the like.  Do you think I'm odd and foolish?  Perhaps it's because I grew up in the 70's, when concern for the environment really took off, and the very first Earth Day came to be.  I know that's why I'd rather cut off my hand than throw even a molecule of trash out of the car window.

But, no, I really don't think it's that.  And it's not because I think animals have souls in the same way that humans do.  You see, when God created the heavens and the earth, he created animals and man in the garden of Eden "And it was good."  Adam named the animals, and it was his job to care for them -- look it up if you don't believe me.  To care for them as God cares for us, not to abuse or to use.  It may not be very theologically sound, but when I want to envision heaven I tend to fall back on Eden, before sin entered the world, as I find heaven difficult to grasp sometimes.  Is this misleading?  To me, it sounds a lot like heaven.  No sin.  Adam walked and talked with God in the cool of the evening, having face to face fellowship with God.  Adam and Eve did some sort of work, gathering food, caring for animals, but I think they walked right among them, and the animals had no fear of them at all, since no one was eating one another.  No animal was eating another animal, no man was eating animals.  Everyone was just eating fruits and vegetables, as it says in Genesis 1:30, 'And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.'  Sounds pretty peaceful, doesn't it?

So, as I drive to work, I dream a bit.  It's a little harrowing as I try to snap my pictures while driving, so many scenes are contained only in my mind's eye.  (I don't want to get to heaven before I've done all God has for me to do, or, worse, take someone with me, just to get a photo!!)  I dream of the day when God's  "Children-By-Faith", will walk with Him in the cool of the evening again, will enjoy His presence, His perfection, and the joy of sharing His creation without the blight of sin and fear, shame, terror, betrayal, and the rest.  I won't have to snatch a picture catch as, catch can then, because I'll be walking among my animal friends.  What a glory.  "Even so, come, Lord Jesus!"

Does this make me weird?