Born to hunt!
I've been deer hunting for years and done a lot of dove hunting back in NC, but this was a totally different animal if you'll excuse the pun.
I was blessed with some descent shots and brought home enough meat for a great meal.
But the most amazing thing about the hunt wasn't the shooting or even the eating, it was the dog.
Our guide Tony, had the most amazing Llewellen Setter. The Llewellen is a hybrid of the English setter or so I'm told because I'm no dog expert. But this dog, I've always loved dogs, was something special. Her name was Nandi. When she jumped out of her cage and stretched a little, I thought that she didn't really look all that like a great hunter. But, I was sorely mistaken.
That dog lit out like she was shot through a gun. Nose high in the air, tongue hanging out and she galloped back and forth hoping to catch the scent of a pheasant or a chucker. Back and forth, back and forth she went until she stopped suddenly by a yucca plant and froze stiff, tail in the air and eyes fixed straight ahead.
Tony said in his thick South African accent "she's on one!"
I picked up the pace to get into position for the flush thinking she might scare the bird off if I waited too long. But Tony explained that Nandi would sit there for hours until someone flushed that bird. He was right, that dog never moved, not an inch!
Sure enough we flushed a big ol pheasnt and a shotgun blast later the bird was in a vest. Simply incredible.
I asked Tony about training Nandi, expecting to hear him say that it took years and big dollars. But to my surprise he said that about 90% of what she does just comes naturally. He went on to tell me that He spent very little time training her. That struck me. How does that dog know how to to that?
And of course it's had me thinking for the past day as well. Some things just come naturally in people too, athletic ability, artistic talent, academic prowess just to name a few. And like that Nandi was born to hunt.
But humans are also born to do lots of other things as well. We are born liars, coveters, rebels and the like. Even with all our talents (effaced images of our Creator) we are broken people born into a broken world. As I watched Nandi living out her life's calling finding and catching birds I thought, "It must be wonderful to arise every single day and be able to do what you were born to do well"
I see so much dysfunction around me and I imagine you do as well and it dawned on me that the reason for that is this, just as Nandi is born to hunt humans are born to be broken in sin. It's in our bloodline our breeding if you will. It's not environmental it's inherited all the way back from The Tree in The Garden.
We don't need better training, we need a new bloodline. And that bloodline is found in the God Man, Jesus Christ who came to earth, lived his life, shattered the status quo, loved with reckless abandon, died on a cross, resurrected from the dead, ascended to heaven and will return again. He did this to undo or redo the corrupted bloodline and give us a new one....life in His blood.
I relaized that I'm more like Nandi than I had imagined. My bloodline now traces itself to Jesus and I have inherited traits from Him that enable me to do what I was "born again" to do. And that dear reader is to live my life in a steady progression from this day forward to be conformed to the image of Christ.
Tony, Nandi's master looked at her with such pride as she simply did what she was born to do. I hope that Jesus looks at me and you with the same sense of joy when we serve His Kingdom doing what we were "born again" to do....set free from the corrupted bloodline of this world.
More to follow
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