As the deer longs for streams of water, so I long for you, O God.” – Psalm 42:1 NLT
From the maple syrup season in March to the end of harvest in October, I am regularly at my family’s farm. In all that time, I haven’t seen a buck. I was beginning to doubt there were any deer on the farm until my brothers put up trail cameras before the deer season. In the past three weeks, there have been at least a dozen different bucks on the cameras. From big eight-pointers to little fork-horns, there are bucks everywhere. They have been there all along. I just didn’t notice them before.
I think that’s sometimes how it is with God. We go about our routines and don’t see that God is there with us. We may even doubt if there is any God. And yet God is everywhere. If only there were trail cameras to capture images of God for us to see. But there are no such cameras. Instead, we have to see that God is there the same way we looked for evidence of deer back before there were trail cameras. We have to look for signs.
Even if we don’t see them, deer leave behind signs that tell us they are there. There are trails of hoof prints, and little trees where bucks rub off the velvet from their antlers. There are beds in the grass where they have lain down and patches of dirt where they have scraped the ground bare. If one looks, they will find these even if the deer themselves are not visible.
So it is with God. There are signs of God at work all around us. If we look closely, we will see them. Let me encourage you to pay attention this week to the signs of God around you. May our souls long for God just as the deer long for streams of water.
Pastor Mark