As The Deer Plays

Wednesday Vickie was in the kitchen getting a glass of water when she looked out the window and saw our lone deer. The lone deer has been around for a few weeks now. Unlike the local herd of around fifteen deer, the lone deer is…of course…alone. We haven’t seen the herd for a while, suggesting that it needs more roaming space than the narrow band of woods that our neighborhood provides. Since I’m not a deer, nor an expert in deer, this suggestion is conjecture, but with folks in the neighborhood cutting their grass there isn’t much forage for a herd to share.

As Vickie watched, the deer ran down the hill in our backyard to the creek, splashed in the creek, jumped up the far bank, ran on the other side of the creek, came back across the creek at the far end of our cleared area in the back, then ran back up the hill and back across the yard to where its sprint had begun. Then it stopped, waited, and took off again down the hill repeating its circuit into the creek, up the other bank, and around the yard once again.

Then it stopped, waited, and took off again. The deer repeated its escapade nine times, having a grand time, perhaps envisioning itself running in the deer Olympics or the Animal Open Track and Field Competition which is held every ten years at a place undisclosed to humans.

This is one of those God-presents, gifts of God through creation. There is something about innocence and beauty that has the power to remind us that things are not as they should be, not as they will be One Day, when the lion lies down with the lamb and there will be no hurt or destruction in God’s Holy Mountain. To be sure creation is not tame, and we watch for snakes when we garden and walk in the woods. Yes, there are predators in creation; as Patrick Revere used to remind us, “All God’s creatures have to eat.” But One Day that facet of creation will be no more as we live in the restoration of all things. There is a sense in which creation knows that it needs healing (Romans 8:20-22), we, however, would usually prefer to medicate ourselves with foolish thinking and living. Perhaps the joy the lone deer experienced in its ten laps around our rear yard is more joy than most of us will know in a lifetime.

C.S. Lewis wrote about joy being the business of heaven, and of play being a glimpse of heaven. We make play into a business and competition, programming our children so to alienate them from the joy of play – they “play” sports and take gymnastics in order to progress and win, win, win. We make little machines. I don’t think deer have regressed to that point. Our production is our worth; teach the kids this when they are young and when they are old they will not depart from it.

Creation can be sacramental; we can see our Father Creator in it and through it; we can receive His grace as we ponder His wonders. When John was in the Throne Room (Revelation Chapters 4 and 5), he saw a lion and a lamb – The Lion and The Lamb.

David wrote, “As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants for You, O God,” (Psalm 42:1). Do we pant for God as the deer pants for water?

Do we play in the joy of God as the deer plays?