Back in March after the snow had receded I had a morning to go out and do some shed hunting, looking in the woods and the grass for antlers that had fallen off the bucks who had survived hunting season and even more impressive, one of the harshest winters I have ever seen in Iowa. I only had time to check a few areas so I picked my favorites and figured I would do some scouting for next year while I was looking for sheds.
That morning I walked and walked and was unsuccessful, except that I found my set of sheds that I dropped during my last bowhunt in November, and now I need new rattling antlers as they are ruined. Just the week previous I was in the corner of Northwest Iowa setting up a 3d shoot and when I was not even looking I found a shed-small of course. Last week, I was down in western Iowa looking for morel mushrooms when I should have been turkey hunting, and my father in-law Tom found a nice complete set of sheds belonging to a 2 1/2 old, one in perfect condition and the other was chewed up pretty good. While I have never had much luck at finding the big sheds I have friends with better luck. One of my friends- Jeremy claimed the second largest shed in the Nebraska whitetail show in February this year. The photo I have attached to this is pair of 190 in. sheds found a few years back on ground that I hunt occasionally .
As a whitetail hunter I am amazed that these kings of the woods who have been given great crowns of horns by God's design, are often never seen by human eyes or even hunters except in the month of November during the Rut. Since I live and hunt in Iowa, I know that in the "Land of Giants" these giants truly exist and every once in while, which seems to be becoming more common these days, one of these giants is taken down, but still it is a rare thing to shoot or let alone see a giant in the wilderness without a motion activated camera. But every Spring after the winter has ended we all go out and see if we can find the crowns which the kings have dropped only to grow an even larger crown of tines for next fall.
This year in March as I walked through the areas I bowhunt, all around me was sign of large bucks; trees rubbed bare from last fall and huge scrapes two and three foot in diameter- but no sheds. I looked high and low at the deer trails, hillsides, and bedding areas, and imagined the time when the Kings had walked where I now stood.
The reason I share this with you is because shed hunting is similar to having faith in God. Every once in while we catch a glimpse of the living God working among us but God is as elusive as an Iowa Giant. In scripture it tells us that no person who sees God face to face can live, even Moses the great prophet called a friend of God was never allowed to see his face, and only he was allowed to see even his backside, as God passed in front of him as told in the book of Exodus.
God is as elusive as a 7 1/2 yr. old buck. But if you know how to read natural sign, as skilled hunters do, you must learn how to read God's sign which is all over our world. Just as a buck leaves positive proof of his existence through scrapes and rubs, he most definitively reveals himself through sheds, and so has God.
When Paul wrote Romans 1 this is what he was implying, " 18The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
In the world we live in today, society by and large has little use for the ways of hunting or the ways of God. As outdoorsmen, especially if we are Christians who hunt, we see the world through different lenses, preferably life through the cross-hairs. When we sit in our tree stands and watch the world come alive in the morning, or see it change before our eyes throughout the duration of the hunting season - we are part of something Holy. We witness Fall turn to winter, we see the sun rise and set, we are privileged to see the countless stars-most modern people never have, and we endure the heat and the cold. We are witnesses to a world that goes on in nature just as it has for thousands upon thousands of years, a world that God cares so much about and the modern world so little.
Brodie Swisher our banquet speaker for this year said, "if anyone should have a reason to believe in God it should be those of us who hunt and fish." I think he said this because we are the ones who see on a regular basis the signs of God which were meant to be like bill boards pointing to him. The created world and those things of nature in it, are like the rubs and scrapes the whitetail buck leaves letting us know he is in the neighborhood and we are in his bedroom.
God's sign is all around us and still we are blind, because of that God gave us scripture and then gave us his son to show the way. The Bible, especially the stories about his son Jesus are the most definite and clear way that God has chosen to let us know of his existence and his plan for us.
The life of Jesus revealed in the Gospels and foreshadowed through the entire Bible, taking them combined, are truly like finding a set of trophy sheds. We all know the best proof that a trophy buck is alive and in your vicinity is when you find his sheds. And whenever I come across a massive shed I like to just admire it with my eyes and then run my hands over the tines and the bases, and imagine the monster that left it. If that giant is in my area I begin to plan for the future hunt, because I know he exists and that the likelihood of his return in the Fall is very good, and if I want a chance at the giant I have got to be ready.
There are many forces in our world today that like mice are working their hardest at gnawing away on the sheds God left for us, sometimes it makes me wonder if soon there will be much sign left for future generations. But there in our ever darkening world is hope because Jesus the first time he came came, was like a young buck, his crown was not impressive at all, but when he returns, this time he is coming with a massive crown. I hope you have picked up the sheds he has dropped and that you are now in pursuit of the greatest hunt of all, the hunt of the King of Kings.
