Heartache to Blessing
By Chris Rathbone
Mitchell County
The 2021 deer season had been a long one. The season started with a lot of excitement and anticipation. My game cameras had captured 3 bucks in the late summer that I had decided were the ones I wanted to focus on trying to harvest. That can be a good thing or a bad thing for a hunter. Good because you know you have good bucks in your hunting area. Bad because you pass on many nice deer because you want to hold out hopes of getting the really big ones! Sometimes this ends up with a hunter having no harvests because you thought you were gonna get “The Big One”. These bucks captured on my game camera were bigger than any I had ever taken so my hopes were high, to say the least.
The bucks were keeping with the late summer pattern fairly consistent. My thoughts were I’d have a pretty good opportunity the 1st week of bow season. I decided to go opening morning and sure enough, one of the giants came out about 60 yards away. Unfortunately, even though the wind was in my favor, the morning thermals gave me away. My heart sank when he snorted and ran away. No more sightings until I saw him on Facebook when another hunter had taken him to the next valley during rifle season.
Though I harvested a couple of does that season, the big bucks managed to stay hidden and one sighting offered no shot with a bow. The 1st bow season passed with no success. I hunted pretty hard that year. Mostly evening hunts with a morning hunt mixed in as time permitted. Knowing the bucks were there kept me going back and really hunting more than I usually do. There’s always extra motivation when you know they’re in your hunting range.
After a trip to Missouri with no success, I returned home to find one of the bucks had been coming in almost every evening. On Friday, November 12th, I made a point to be in my stand early. The buck had been by my stand 3 evenings that week following does. Sure enough, about an hour before dark here he came in behind a doe. All of the time and effort of the entire season came together to present the shot I had waited for and dreamed about….and I blew it! In the heat of the moment with buck fever causing my heart to beat in my eardrums, a rushed shot caused a marginal hit and my heart sank. The search ended when the blood trail disappeared, and I had to come to grips that I had blown my opportunity. The next week, crows were gathered a distance away and my thought was maybe it was him. I noted the general area but decided not to stomp around too much for there were still other dandy bucks in the area. The Lord blessed me with a nice public land 9-pointer during rifle season Thanksgiving week. I was certainly excited and grateful, but in the back of my mind, I was haunted by the blown opportunity.
The 2nd bow season that year offered no opportunities. On December 31st, I decided I would hunt in the morning till about 10 am for the weather was warm. The plan was to walk the ridge where I saw the crows gathering to maybe, just maybe, at least find the antlers of the buck I had shot. Climbing down out of my stand, I simply prayed, “Lord, if you would do it for me, could you please help me find this buck I messed up on? In Jesus name, Amen.”
After walking out of the main ridge, I dropped off onto the side ridge that I had planned to check out. The ridge plunged steeply down and following along for a bit I noticed a large spot where the ground was bare of leaves and limbs. Coming closer revealed hair and bones. This was it! This was my buck that got away. Stepping upon a big log, I walked out the log and looked down and there were the antlers still attached to the head! One and half months later the Lord helped me find the deer. I tagged the buck just as I would have any other deer even though the meat had been lost. Sitting down on the log for a while, the whole experience replayed in my mind. God had taken a pretty discouraging experience and turned it into a great blessing. Lessons were learned, patience was gained, discouragement and perseverance were brought into my life, and I was able to give this mountain monarch buck the respect he deserved. God had taken a deer season to teach me, grow me, help me see some shortcomings, and experience His grace in an everyday situation. If He can do that with just a deer season, imagine what He does for us during all the major circumstances in life! He can turn heartache into a blessing often when we least expect it.
In Christ,
Preacher Chris
Romans 8:28 “For we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”
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Preacher Chris Rathbone is the Pastor at Bear Creek Baptist Church and is now serving the Lord as needed while preaching the Gospel. You can read more Good Christian News from Pastor Chris HERE.
You can connect with Preacher Chris on Facebook HERE.
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