He stepped out of the woods. Crossed in front of the car and then stood among some trees before stopping and looking up at me. He is a Red Stag. A male of the Red Deer species, he is not from around here, but clearly he is here. His ancestors hail from Europe, the Caucasus Mountains and into Western Asia. He is larger than our native deer. The species has been introduced to Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Peru, Uruguay, Chile, Argentina the U.S. Once it had a declining population, now they are thriving. I met him at a pastor’s meeting I attended this week. He is beautiful.
I had spent over an hour with the landowner the day before trying to track down the herd of Red Deer on the property to take a photograph. We had driven all over the property, but eventually gave up with no sightings. The next morning, the car was headed home when we turned right into the property instead of left and onto the highway. Within a minute, a large herd (30-40 animals) of Red Deer all lifted their heads and quietly munched on grass and considered the vehicle. That is when I saw this stag. I’m so glad I took the extra time to look.
A demographer for Texas Baptists also came to our meeting and talked about the growth of Texas over the next 7 years. He said the conservative prediction models are that 5.2 million people will move to our state by 2030 (we currently have 30 million people in Texas). It’s a number so large that it is overwhelming. While most will be moving to the already densely packed urban areas, some will be moving to more rural communities, like ours.
We need to start praying now that God will give us a vision for reaching the lost in Athens. We will need to search for them, prepare for them, seek ways to connect with them and train to respond to them. They are coming from all over the country and all over the world. They might not have started here, but they are coming to make it home and they are beautiful. They are loved by God and we must share Christ with them. We could try to keep going as if they are not here, but I think God is asking for us to turn toward them and not away from them. I think its going to start with prayer on our part so that we are prepared for what God is going to do.