First Shot…

First Shot…11-16-25

Have you ever met someone who could not sit still? In my educational career, I have met hundreds. In my family, I raised two, and am assisting in the raising of a third. The desire to be still is there, the ability is not.

My grandson has talked of hunting the last two years. He wants a compound bow. Until this year, he has never talked about nor even tried shooting. A few weeks ago, he came to his Papa and I asking if we could take him. Now why not his dad, because he knows his dad isn’t patient with him. It is different. I am the patient one. Our grandson’s maternal great-grandfather passed away and left his .410 to our grandson. It has been in the safe. We took it out, found some target load, and Papa is teaching him gun safety. He has practiced and says he is ready.

Opening weekend, we went out the second day in the afternoon. I got him settled in the stand. Tried to be patient with his wiggles, whispering, and constant movements. I’m the patient one in the family, usually. I’m also the one who loves deer hunting. We sat, fidgeted, whispered, moved, then saw the ears of one. It came into the open. But, it wasn’t just one, two, three, four, five, or six, there were seven that came out. They didn’t stay out long. We couldn’t be still enough. The movements led them to scatter and run. No shot there.

Yesterday, we went back out. It was worse and we didn’t see anything. Today, we tried again. It was some better, but the results were the same until…until we saw one. This one came from another direction. I completely didn’t see this one coming from where it did. I put my hand on his arm, directed his gaze to the deer, and whispered for him to be still. Futile really, when you consider he wears ear protectors and can’t hear much of anything. It was amazing. The deer looked, turned, and continued to look. Then it moved closer. Now with a .410, you need to be relatively close. The deer continued to skirt the wood line and began to move into the hay field. We were on the opposite wood line. The deer moved on into the field. I whispered for him to take the shot when he was ready. He was patient, waited, watched, and moved the edge of his gun as the deer moves closer. The deer stopped, moved back a little, and then moved forward again. It turned less than a hundred yards. My grandson shot. The deer quickly turned and ran along with it’s companion. We looked and looked, but no dead deer. He proclaimed, “I missed. Did I do good, Moppy?” Yes, yes, you did. I asked if his heart was pounding, and he nodded and grinned. He wasn’t upset at the miss. Excited that he had the casing from his first shot. I had called Papa after he shot, and he came to help us look. We called his mom and dad to tell them. He was so excited. Not at all upset. Content in the knowledge that he would try again, and that many of us have shot and missed.

Now you may be wondering where I’m going to bring in my daily scripture. The only verse that I keep thinking of over and over again is Psalm 46:10, “He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” In Hebrew, the word for “be still” is "har pū". It means desist, cease, stop, or relax. Literally, if we as humans "har pū", we can hear God working in our lives. We can see His hand at work. Among all the brush, weeds, and grass, we can see His movement. We know that the Almighty One who quietly directs the movement of deer in the field, will lead us if only we stop and allow Him to take control.

Just like my grandson who can’t sit still, our inability to “be still” and allow God to take the reigns causes us to miss. We take shot after shot, but we can’t hit the target because we do not allow God to be the one who directs our aim.