Glassing for deer

Being an 8 year old boy has to be one of the greatest times of life for a little man. For a dad its great to have an 8 year old too. My son is the spitting image of me, its hard to deny him. Its hunting season in November and this is Jack's first year going out with me to experience this oldest of traditions. For thousands of years men have taken their sons into the wilderness to teach them how to provide. In our day something of that has been lost with our superstores. But it doesn't change what is inside a man or a boy. There is something inate about being on the hunt. Men even make shopping trips like a hunt. There is no wandering, there must be a mission to get what it is you came for. Saturday was our first day in the woods together on a real hunt. It had been a completley frustraing day for me. Early on Saturday morning I shot a massive buck but as my hunting fortunes of late have had it, I lost it after 7 hours of tracking with my friends Jeremy and Keith. This has happened twice in the past two years. I was discouraged and hurt. My main concern was that this beautiful animal that I had shot was suffering in some awful thicket waiting to die. It is never the goal of the hunter to inflict pain. Our goal is to take the animal quickly and feed our family with that provision. I had almost given up on our afternoon hunt. It was windy, which meant the deer would be laying low, I was discouraged. But, I thoguht of how important this day would be to Jack. So we headed out into the woods. We sat in my ground blind and had just a great time of being together in the place where God made us to be. We didn't talk about profound truths, we were just together. We whispered, Jack looked through the binoculars, and he even took a nap. No we didn't get a deer, didn't even see one. But we got something more importnat...time. Time together as father and son. Jack got a memory of his first hunt and he got a good nap. I got to see my little boy growing up from that infant that I used to hold in one hand. It was precious and good. Enjoy the pictures of the little deer hunter and for heavens sake take your boys outside!