Outdoor Truths: Aiming Outdoorsmen Toward Christ Jan 9, 2014
Gary Miller ~ outdoortruths.org
Alongside that same bank was his boat. It was one like I had never seen before or since. I can only describe it as a flat bottom canoe made of wood. It was long and not very wide or deep. And I can only remember a couple of places to sit down. Now I’m sure he had landed a few fish from this boat in times past, but now the boat was used for occasional transportation. When the weather was good and the creek didn’t rise, each Sunday, Mr. MacDonald would take his long homemade oar and get in his homemade boat and traverse the small river to the church he attended downstream. I’m sure he had other ways of getting there, but the boat was his preferred means. Now as a younger fellow I never asked him why he did that. I wished I had. But as an older man I can imagine the reasons. I use to think this short journey must have prepared him for worship. I later understood this was his time of worship. I can imagine the sights he must have enjoyed as he prepared to meet with fellow believers. I can imagine how he must have been awestruck by the picture of God as painted by creation. I can imagine how the voices of each animal became God’s unique choir as they were sung in unison. The biblical David must have taken that same trip, when he sung the words, “The heavens declare the glory of God!” It’s true. And even though that boat is perhaps rotted and ruined, the sights and sounds that declare the Glory of God are still there for us if we’ll put ourselves in the place to see and hear them.
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