Hidden Gems

To the naked eye, this is a bunch of trees. To the hunter’s eye, he sees four potential shots. Okay, maybe you can see two, but there are four in there – I know because all four of them ran in front of me yesterday at the Black River Ranch. I had to stop and take this picture because it really hit me as I searched for all four in the thick wooded area – that’s how I am with God sometimes. Okay, a LOT of the time.

What’s wild is this, even when I don’t just see Him visibly or “feel Him” in the moment, He’s right there. There’s a great worship song that’s pretty popular right now that talks about God working even when we don’t see Him or feel Him – and this image just really got me yesterday. So much of my life has been spent asking or seeking or wondering – a lot of confusion to be honest – if He is REALLY there like His Word says “all the time.” I think sometimes He gives us these little hidden gems to paint a picture for us to see, “This. This is how I work Josh. This is Me being visible, and you seeking intently.”

The key word there is intently. With our high school guys discipleship group we have been talking about this a lot lately – about being intentional in our walk. We call it transactional Jesus. We talk about how we often ask God for things only when we need Him, but not when we just want to grow in our relationship. A lot of that personal change happens when we actually start reading the Word, as well as spending time in conversation with Him. In all transparency, we all, me included, share that it’s hard to do with all of our distractions (aka excuses).

To all the folks who are fixing to head out into the woods, may this be a reminder as you head off to your deer stand. May we sit and reflect on God’s greatness, His perfect timing, and His ability to be seen and heard if we’ll just get still long enough and seek Him. And may you shoot a trophy-sized buck as well… unless it’s near our hunting land – in which case, I hope you miss. And he finds our trails instead!