Lessons from God’s Creation

Is it worth it?

He was a magnificent bull elk with the largest, best organized harem in the valley -20 cows many with calves in tow. Well into the night, he was anxiously warding off interlopers and rounding up cows which had strayed too far. Even when a lull occurred, he kept busy checking his harem to see if any were receptive to his advances. While the cows ate and rested, the great bull worked.

On this day, a change in the weather kept the herd from retreating to the wooded slopes. With the unusual opportunity of watching him at midday, we saw him still herding, guarding and bugling his challenge to a distant bull. He barely ate and never rested for more than a minute or two. He was work­ing himself to exhaustion.

It is a fact that many a great bull dies during the harsh winter because in the fall rut he does not store up the reserves needed to survive.

A half-mile away a younger bull was forced to content himself with a mini-harem of four cows. Come spring, he will not have bred as many calves, but he will probably be alive. With less wealth to worry about, he has time to rest and eat sufficiently for the lean time ahead; he’s not endangering his health protecting his abundance.

Should the larger bull have settled for less, relaxed a bit so he could enjoy it more and prepared himself for the trials ahead? Of course he should have! Was it worth it having the biggest harem in the valley? Of course not

We thought of the words, “There is a sore evil which I have seen under the sun, namely, riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt… the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep” (Eccl. 5:12,13). We thought, too, of how often we are tempted to seek for more, when all it does is bring hurt into our lives. And we thought of how we become anxious about our status or how we fare in comparison to others and become so preoccupied with passing things, that our spiritual health suffers to the point we may not survive when sore trial comes into our lives.

As the great bull elk circled and worried, he was speaking to us the exhortation to be content with what God has given us and not to fret away the opportunity for life He has so graciously provided.

Mariah is sitting outside the patio door staring in. She sits so close that her nose makes smudges on the glass. She doesn’t like being out there when we are in the house, nor would she want to be in the house if we were outside.

Mariah is our black lab, and her whole goal in life is to be with us at all times. She is sad and mournful when we leave to go anywhere without her. When we return she rejoices, and welcomes us back with every ounce of her being. We hear cries of joy when we step our foot out of the car. When we get in the house, her tail wags so hard she can hardly walk, and she searches for shoes and socks to present to us as gifts.

It is obvious that she considers her life to have little meaning when she is apart from us, and that her world is right and beautiful when she is at our side.

I don’t think this overwhelming love and devotion is unique to Mariah. Probably most dog owners would say the same of their pet. It just seems to be a quality of most dogs.

I have often thought that it would be a wonderful thing if we could have as much love and devotion for our Master as dogs do for theirs. If we could yearn for our Master, love our Master, mourn his absence, and rejoice at the promise of his coming with every ounce of our being, then, when we are finally at his side, our world will be right and beautiful.