Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him. -1 John 5:14
A couple of days ago I made a trip out to Flat Top Mountain for an afternoon hike for some alone time with God. I took my camera because my wife asked me to get some good pictures. No pressure, right? When I arrived at the trail I was excited because no one else was there. But as I began my hike, I was quickly disappointed because the plants were really droopy and suffering from the lack of rain we have had here this summer.
I normally hike to the summit of Flat Top, but yesterday my plan was to go about halfway up to a small area where I thought some yellow wild flowers might be in bloom with lots of Butterflies. But as I feared from what I observed at the base of the mountain, the flowers were all gone and there was not one Butterfly to be seen. I saw some small lavender flowers along the trail, but even they were suffering a bit from the mountain being so dry.
While walking and praying I saw movement to my right, and there was a nice doe bedded down by a tree about 20 yards from me. I got a couple of shots off with my camera and then I got a great surprise. A spike buck poked his head out from behind the tree where the doe was bedded down! Talk about an answer to a hopeful prayer.
On the way back down the trail it started getting pretty dark and I saw one more big deer running up the side of the mountain a good distance from where I was on the trail. It stopped and all I could see at that point was the white of its tail. I drew up my EOS 50D and extended my lens to 400 mm and took a picture. I don't know why I didn't delete it at the time because it was very dark on the camera screen, but I'm glad that I didn't. When I got home and started editing the pictures, I got a huge surprise. It was one of those "I had no idea that was in the frame" surprises! That very dark picture that I was close to deleting contained a 9 point buck looking back at me on the side of the mountain.
Never doubt the power of prayer. Jesus is always listening!
Thank you for stopping by and staying a while. The weather is cooling down and there's still lots to see and explore, so get outside and enjoy the things the Lord has made...even if it's just in your own back yard.
In Christ,
Kevin-