In Need of Strength?

                                                                                                  

“It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect. He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; he enables me to stand on the heights.” *

It was early in the morning when I heard the clipping sound of our dog’s nails on the hardwood floor of the hallway leading to our bedroom. After reluctantly getting up to put him outside, I happened to glance out a window at the backyard and was shocked to see a large buck   consuming our hydrangea for breakfast!

Worried that TJ the dog would discover the deer, I hurriedly called him back inside. Having jumped the chain link fence in the first place, the buck could easily get away. But I didn’t want to chance a confrontation between them.

 TJ, however, was waiting at the door, appearing to be oblivious to the buck standing less than a dozen yards away from him. That wasn’t like the TJ of former years, who would chase anything on four legs, including lizards, and even stick his head into bushes in the hopes of catching a bird.

 Once he was in the house, I returned to the window to see if the deer had left. But he was still standing over the hydrangea with his head cocked in the direction of the door. I grabbed the cell phone and took a couple of pictures. It was a moment of quiet beauty, even though our plants were being devoured!

Seeing deer was commonplace in Springville where we had lived for 30 years. When we moved to Michigan, neither Al nor I expected to see deer in the neighborhood. However, they move freely about the suburbs of Detroit, helping themselves to whatever is edible.

“ OK, if you aren’t going on your own, I’ll have to help you move along,” I thought, opening the window so that he could hear me, but in a tone low enough not to wake Al. “Move along, move along,” I told him.

At once his ears went up and he turned his head towards the window. I’m not sure how clearly he could see me, but he didn’t budge. The next time I looked, the spot where he was standing was vacated, as was the back yard, with only the pictures on the phone and the clipped shrubs as evidence of his visit.

 After feeding TJ, I sat down to read my Bible, resuming with Psalm 18 where I had ended the previous day. In the psalm, David praised God for delivering him from the hand of his enemies after calling on Him for help, especially Saul, the first king of Israel and David’s own father-in-law. King Saul was bent on destroying David who was a threat to his reign over Israel, and nearly succeeded.   

 David’s words in verses 32 and 33 stopped me in surprise. Although I had read them before, they spoke directly to my heart that morning: “It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect. He makes my feet like the feet of a deer…”

 David found strength and courage to face his enemies by trusting in the Lord. Just as the powerful legs of a deer enable it to leap over high obstacles, so God gave him strength in battle. In the same way God gives us the necessary strength to fight our battles, whether physical, mental, emotional or spiritual, when we call upon Him.

My dad often shared the story about a low point in his life, a time when he thought he was going to die. He was a young man, a newlywed and star tackle for Cal Berkeley’s football team during the 1940’s.

Dad’s flying tackles, with his feet literally off the ground and arms widespread, eventually landed him in the hospital for surgery to remove a tumor from one of his ribs. A short time later, the doctor came in with some bad news. The surgical team had accidentally removed a rib from the wrong side!

A second surgery was needed immediately. That was when Dad became discouraged. He didn’t think he could make it through another one.

Then, with awe in his voice, he would say “God told me that I was going to be okay!” With that reassurance he made it through the second surgery, rehabilitation and on to a full recovery.

Need strength for this day? Courage? Call upon the Lord. He will answer you!

*Psalm 18:32-33 NIV