In thinking about what I wanted to post today and in light of the recent election and other world events, I remembered an issue of The Point that I wrote several years ago about faith and how our faith could be like the antlers of a deer. Yes, it is hunting season and living with a hunter, it seemed an appropriate time to post this issue from 2005. The picture below is one of my man’s trophies. We don’t grow ’em like that in Georgia.
As most of you know, my husband, Greg, is an avid hunter. He hunts deer, birds, and other creatures during their appropriate seasons. This past fall he went to Wisconsin on a deer hunt that he had anticipated for many months. The promise of a trophy buck was extremely tantalizing and he counted down the days until he left in September. He was not disappointed and brought home a beautiful deer with a rack of antlers larger than anything seen in his hunts in Georgia. He also brought home a video that was taken at the property where he hunted showing the numbers and size of the deer that are available to hunt. As we watched the video I thought about how a hunter seeks after the deer with the large, well developed racks rather than the young spikes with only a couple of points. I also thought about how the antlers on a deer can symbolize our faith. Let me explain further.
When a male deer is young it will only have a couple of small points and it may be called a spike. As the deer matures, it may develop a larger rack with more points and the rack may thicken, becoming one that is desirable to a hunter. Most experienced hunters desire to take a buck with a large, impressive rack rather than a spike.
When we are new Christians our “rack of faith” is small, maybe just a couple of small points in the first years of our new life in Christ. Some Christians are like the Hebrew Christians to whom Paul wrote in Hebrews 5: 12-14: “In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.” The people to whom Paul wrote were still “spikes” in their faith. Their antlers of faith had not grown and developed because they were not growing and developing in Christ.
In contrast, Christians who spend time in the Word and in communion with Christ through prayer develop “racks of faith” that are larger and may even be considered to be trophy racks. They are the ones of whom Paul spoke when he wrote to the Christians in Colosse in Colossians 2: 6: “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.” When we work to develop our faith through our time with the Lord and consciously trusting Him in every situation of our lives, our “racks of faith” grow.
I imagine Jesus looking at Christians today and seeing all varieties of racks of faith. Some He looks at and thinks, “One day she will have a bigger rack of faith, but she’s still young.” About others He might say, “If only he would spend more time with me and trust in me, he would have more than just a couple of spikes of faith.” Yet others cause Christ to gaze proudly at them and brag to the Father and the Spirit, “Look at that rack of faith! That one’s a trophy! She trusted me through some pretty rough times, found me faithful, and look what developed.”
I want Christ to look at my “rack of faith” and admire it. I want to please Him by the faith that I develop in Him. I want to be a trophy in God’s trophy case of faith.
