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Birthday Buck – A Story of Grace When The Light Is Fading

On September 11, 2015 in Deer Hunting by Gavin Jackson

My friend Jason Love recently had a birthday and since I couldn’t afford to buy him anything I figured I’d could “gift” him my presence in the woods! Jason and I hunt and fish together a lot so we looked forward to getting together.

Jason has a hunting spot where he’s been getting some pics of really nice bucks, but they’re only coming in at night. The below game cam pic is the one we were after. Jason told me early on that it would only be by the grace of God that we see this deer in shooting light.

The Buck on Game Camera Pre-Season

So we knew the buck we were after and knew he liked to come out in the evenings. As you know, it’s been really hot lately and yesterday in particular the weather wasn’t the best scenario. It was lightening off in the distance as we entered the woods, but we played the wind and weather conditions the best we could. Jason has always told me “If you want to shoot big bucks you’ve got to learn to hunt the wind.” His words would be like foreshadowing on the hunt on which we were embarking.

We climbed in the stand at 5:30 and got situated. The stand overlooked a shooting lane and was camouflaged back in some trees. It was indeed hot and yes we did sweat for a while! Of course we had our laugh out loud moments on past memories and of course we got some Jesus time in as well! Jason and I have a habit of preaching to each other and to anyone who will listen and we’ll be glad to talk to you too!

The view from our stand

After our deer stand sermons were over we knew we were ready for the hunt! Little did we know what was about to happen. We hadn’t been sitting there too long when a doe walked out in front of us. I never heard or saw that doe coming it just appeared. It didn't stick around long and eventually it laid down and took a nap in the edge of the cut over!

The sun was slowly starting to fade and our ability to see down the shooting lane would soon be gone. Both of us were desperately looking for the ONE to come on out and give us a shot. Moments later Jason says “There is a deer!” Then he said “That's my deer!” A few seconds later I heard the rifle go BOOMYOW as he fired the shot! The deer bolted towards us and from what I could tell he crashed! At that moment it was all praising God for His blessing! We sat in the stand for a bit to both celebrate and let our racing hearts calm down.

We then climbed down and located the deer. It was a nice 7 point with a 19.5 inch spread that ended up weighing 190lbs. Once we located the deer Jason got on his knees and he praised Jesus for it! He had made what we thought was impossible, possible, like He always does! It was a birthday hunt that we’ll never forget.

In many ways the story of this hunt parallels the way God often works in our lives. We often make “our” plans and adhere to “our” own envisioned timelines and schedules. We go out and when things don’t work as we think they should or when we think they should we get frustrated. I’ve sat in a deer stand many days when I thought I should be seeing deer and didn’t see anything just like I’ve looked at life many times and felt like things should be different than my current circumstances. Though, we can’t impose our schedule over God’s schedule. His timing is perfect, ours is not. So just when you think you’re down and you don’t see any way to move forward… stay positive and keep listening to those uplifting you and speaking biblical truths to you. Just when you think the light is fading you may just experience God’s grace.