From The Backwoods Pew

Here are a few things sure to be heard in the woods that will change your day.

“Go ahead, you can make it!”

I didn’t. While I am tall and in times past athletic, hot summer days will cause you to think that you can fly when you can’t, and your cruising partner in need of a break and a good story to tell at lunch tomorrow, will seriously try to encourage you to make a jump that an Olym pic athlete would walk away from.

“The log over that canal looks good and sturdy.”

It wasn’t. Halfway across on a cold winter morning, it collapsed under my weight, leaving me treading air for what seemed like an eternity, only to succumb to gravity and plunge into a deep water-filled canal.

“Your truck won’t stall, and besides the water isn’t that deep.”

When trying to find places to log after a Category 3 hurricane—unless you like climbing out of the windows—turn around, because it will stall and it is deep.

“I thought you brought the compass!”

This statement after a five-minute hike from the truck required a twohour hike back to the truck. (Which, by the way, the engine still running and the doors open with the air conditioning still blowing, was right where we left it.) Somehow, we walked right past the end of the old logging road and before we knew it, we were lost.

“TREE!”

While driving the old logging roads after a Category 4 hurricane, we rounded a curve to see a tree across the road, but we were traveling too fast to stop and plowed into it. It was an old hollow tree, which went to dust as we hit it, with the only damage being to my ears from the fellow in the passenger seat screaming.

“Never saw the first yellow fly.”

It’s what a competing forester will tell you about the swamp you are going out to cruise the next day. It echoes in your mind even as the flies cover you by the thousands. He never saw the first one because they came in numbers beyond his ability to count!

“Oh my!”

This spoken by the consulting forester as he opens your bid—guaranteed to tighten up your innards like a five-year-old can of potted meat. As he adjusts his glasses to again look at the bid you have turned in, you know he is calculating the amount of commission he has just made, thanks to your generosity. Meanwhile, you are trying to figure out how you left so much money on the table and maybe the yellow flies really did affect your estimate.

“That’s Virginia creeper, not poison ivy, go ahead and measure that tree.”

Do I really need to go into detail here? Obviously, Virginia creeper is an old Indian word for “scratch all night.”

From a tree: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do…” (Luke 23:34)

Even in death Jesus loved us; he wanted us to still have a chance to come to the Father.

From a tree: “It is finished!” (John 19:30)

With His last breath, His last deed was for us. Because it was finished, He sacrificed His life for our sins, so we have a chance to say, “It has begun.” Our chance for eternal life, to fulfill the purpose God has for us, lies in front of us.

From a rocky grave: “He is not here, but is risen!” (Luke 24:6a)

Thus we have hope; we have a risen Savior, longing to have a lifelong relationship with us. How will you respond?

Excerpted from Faith, Fur, and Forestry, Bradley W. Antill, Author. See more at www.onatreeforestry.com