I realize I left many of you hanging with the first part of this story and I have to say that was on purpose because we were left hanging in this situation. Sometimes you can ask God over and over and you just never get an answer. There IS a reason for that, but you may never know the reason! In this case, the good news is, there is more to the story. The bad news is, you may not like the answer. Sometimes a story is a story and it is beyond your control except to tell it like it happened. So, as Paul Harvey always said, here is the rest of the story. (Stephanie, you might want to start opening your mind a little bit at this point and using it!)
The day after we found the baby deer in the woods, we set out for an adventure to The Stones River National Battle Field for the day! (That’s another story!) On the way, we talked about having to leave the deer. I second guessed the decision to leave the baby in the woods more than you can imagine. I had visions of grandeur that I picked the baby up and carried it out of the woods where rangers and veterinarians rushed it to emergency support and saved its life. I had visions that it grew up in a nice petting zoo and lived a long and happy life. Well, you get the idea. My heart wanted more than anything to save that baby, but my head knew that the odds of us saving it were almost zero. A heart without brains can possibly do more damage than good. (Remember that Stephanie.)
We spent a great day at the battlefield and then headed back to camp. All day we thought about the baby and talked about it. When we got back to the camp, Elisha asked if he could make a cross for it so I got him some string and sticks and we made a small cross to put over the baby deer when we went back to bury it, which at this point, I fully expected to do. We had talked about the possibility that the baby would live and I had several posts from people more knowledgeable that myself who said mothers will often leave their babies and then come back for them, but honestly, I thought we would find him dead.
The night before, when we left the baby deer behind, we had marked the tree so we were sure to find him again. The trail we had been on was behind our campsite so rather than go back and do the whole trail, we cut straight through the woods and found that the trail was just a couple of hundred yards behind us.(Had I known this the night before, it might have caused me to make a different decision and bring the deer to our camp!) We back tracked down the trail and found our marker. At this point, we both hesitated. I smelled the air for the scent of death, which as hot as it was, would have been very strong. I left Elisha and Beast on the trail not wanting him to see what I might find. I thought another animal might have eaten the baby or drug it off and we would find blood, or worse, where we left the beautiful creature.
As I approached the depression where we had covered the deer, the sight that greeted me was unbelievable. The leaves were moved as if the deer had stood up out of the depression! There was no blood, no guts, no sign of a struggle, and no dead baby!!!! I told Elisha, but I told him to keep Beast away and let me have a few minutes. My dad taught me tracking many years ago and although I would not say I am great at it, I know how to read some signs and I know how to identify most foot prints. Deer prints are easy.
I started from where the little deer had been laying. The ground around him had been somewhat dry and he could not have been heavy enough to make a print. However, not more than a foot from where the baby deer had been, I found the unmistakable large prints of an adult deer. They went away from where the baby had been. I followed them down to a swampy area by a creek on the other side of the trail where the ground was really wet from all the rain we had had during the week. As the mother , yes, I am now sure it was the mother, stepped in a very wet patch of mud, I could make out four very small feet print right beside the larger prints. As I knelt looking at them, I realized that nature and God had known what they were doing and had played a hand in my decision the day before to leave the baby, no matter how hard it had been. I called Elisha over to show him and I am sorry to say, I was so overcome with emotion that I did not take pictures of the feet print. We were in dark woods, so I doubt they would have been visible anyway, so you will just have to have faith. The mama and baby were together and safe. The foot prints disappeared into the creek and I stopped following them. I did not want to possibly spook the mother again, which is what I think happened the night before. I think we had startled the deer and the mother had run to try to draw us away, but we never saw her again. We just found her baby and could have made a disastrous decision had we taken her out of the woods. We turned back toward our camp, this time with joy in our hearts, and walked slowly away!
I love people with big hearts because I am one of them. However, I always try to think through the consequences of my actions even when I act on my heart. If I walk past a man on the street asking for money and give him 20 dollars, I feel good about helping him, but what if he takes that 20 dollars and buys heroin and overdoses and dies? Did I do him good or did I help lead to his death. Maybe I should have walked past and not given him money, but donate that money to a local drug rehab clinic and possibly truly change his life. You see Stephanie, in your effort to be good and be self-righteous, you would have taken that deer out of the woods. You would have ripped a babe from its mother and more than likely killed that baby deer. That is what I don’t like about people who always think they are right…we never know for sure. This story could have ended with us burying that babe in the woods and shedding tears for its death. Would our decision to leave it have been any more right or wrong? Sometimes the right decision is often the hardest. Use your heart, but also use your head, and no matter which you use, always realize that you are not perfect and either decision could be the wrong one!
As you finish this story, if you didn’t read the comments, you might not understand why I have addressed Stephanie throughout this part. Stephanie is on my friends list and probably is connected to me through my students over the years, but I have no idea who Stephanie is, and yet she just attacked me as a horrible person and a monster for leaving the baby deer. When I checked her page, the cover said God is NOT Dead and it blew my mind. How could someone who has faith in God so misunderstand a story and God? One of the first and main tenants is do not judge, leave that to God. Well, I think you missed that one Stephanie, and worse, you judged without even having all the facts. I have no doubts you have a big heart, but you need to mature and realize that you need to combine that with your brain. My final point is, we have the opportunity on Facebook and other social media to share so much, but be sure that you know what you are talking about before you share. Don’t be afraid to admit when you are wrong and most of all be kind even when you tell someone a hard truth. I told Stephanie to shut up and wait for the rest of the story and I might have mentioned her head being up her posterior, and for that I am sorry. We can all be sensitive to criticism, but even I was beating up on myself for leaving the deer behind. But, looking back, even had we found the babe dead, I’d have still left it behind because that was the right thing to do. That was where it belonged and where it had the best chance to live the life God and nature intended.
Postscript: Our last night at camp, we were almost alone at the campground. As we sat around the fire near dark, we looked into the campsite next to us and a very large doe was standing there and looking at us. She stared for a few minutes and I stood and walked toward her. She did not run away, but stared at me. In the near dark, I could be mistaken, but I could swear I saw her wink at me with a smile on her face. I did not see the baby, but I like to think he was nearby resting while mama ate. The doe stood there a few more minutes and then turned and walked toward the woods!
