Goin' On A Bear Hunt

"But David said to Saul, "Your servant has been keeping his father's sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, ³⁵ I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it." 1 Samuel 17:34-35

Boy, God sure speaks in mysterious ways sometimes! Just now, I sat down, prepared to not write a whole lot this morning, but prepared to share how I'm getting ready to go camping for a week. It's a bittersweet vacation, because the kids are really looking forward to a week in the woods. Andy and I not as much, because Andy won't be there hardly at all. He has to work this week. We'd planned our vacation way back in February, and it certainly isn't a problem with Andy's employer. But we're going to be moving soon, and that takes funding. We had planned on moving at the end of September, but we were told it must be the end of August. We then faced a choice, either the whole family could skip camping or Andy would just spend the weekend and then come home and work for the week. We simply can't move in a few weeks without that income. So my wonderful husband is going to work while the kids and I play in the woods. It's bittersweet because it would be much more wonderful if Andy was there, plus this is the only vacation we get to take this year, and he has to miss it.

Anyway, I sat here, debating what to write when I started singing this song, Going On A Bear Hunt. It made me laugh at first, and I just kept thinking about scriptures to share on rest and quiet time, but I kept hearing Junior Asparagus singing about going on a bear hunt. So on a whim, I went to Bible Gateway and typed in "bear" and got the verse above.

Let's think about what David did for a minute. We've all seen bears and lions. Either in the zoo or on TV, or maybe even in the woods in person. (Maybe not so much the lions, but there are definitely bears in the woods.) Can you imagine what it takes for a man to grapple with a lion or a bear and wrestle a lamb away from it? Really think about that for a minute. A bear, trying to devour a lamb- it's sustenance is going to be horrendously mean and vicious as you try to take it's food away. Yet David speaks calmly about it, that when a bear tries to take a lamb, he wrestles the bear and kills it. Just like that! And I guarantee, David had no bear hunting rifle.

This next week, the kids and are spending time away from the bear. We're spending time away from civilization and worldly things and just relaxing and enjoying the nature that God has created. And we're so looking forward to it. We're going to reconnect with family and God and focus on what is really and truly important. It's going to be wonderful.