Friends, Memories and Elusive Does

I just returned from a 2.5 day deer hunting trip with my good friend Dirk Grenemeier. I had never been hunting before but wanted to go with Dirk for a number of reasons- I knew it was important to Dirk because he had gone with his father-in-law Bill Morse for a number of years before Bill passed away a year ago this last October. Dirk had gone out some last year on his own to Bill's cabin and because Dirk has been a good friend to me for a long time and because Bill was as well, I wanted to go. It was a great time being in God's glorious creation as well as learning how to shoot a high-powered rifle. For the days that we sat looking for deer, we didn't see any, subsequently didn't get a shot on one but the experience was so much more whether getting up early, watching the sun rise, enjoying the goodness of God's creation,... friendship, solitude, meeting the locals out in the Hordville, NE area or enjoying good meals and conversation together. In fact, I've posted to the right on my blog a picture of the sun rising Friday morning- that morning as well as this morning took my breath away. Also, in this post is another picture I took of the moon over Bill's cabin. Bill is part of the great cloud of witnesses spoken of at the beginning of the Hebrews 12 and a brother who now reigns with Christ. We sought to honor Bill's memory these last few days but also know that there is much time we anticipate together in a glorious future as well. In the meantime, we miss Bill but continue to enjoy some of the things he enjoyed. Oh, and by the way, you know how I said we didn't see any deer as we sat out in the cold and waited Thursday and Friday evening as well as Friday and Saturday morning? Well, driving back home this morning, we saw no less than 12 does (Dirk and I had doe permits), 11 that ran in front of our vehicle and one that got spooked and ran back the other way. Are you kidding me? No deer sightings for 2.5 days and all of a sudden as we are packed up, guns stowed away, leaving Bill's property,... 12 deers! I guess they got the best of us this trip. I actually overheard them saying to one another in their native deer language "suckers!" as they so gracefully ran across Nebraska fields.