No Finer Exercise

Psalm 80 • Psalm 77, [79]
Num. 9:15-23; 10:29-36 • Rom. 11:1-15 • Matt. 17:14-21

To think of gratitude in the middle of the night when you can’t sleep is a wonderful thing. There is no finer exercise of the mind than gratitude. But I wouldn’t say I thought of gratitude when I saw the fawn.

I have a big spreading lawn with lots of trees. The other morning, when I went to pick some iris, I almost stepped on a fawn who, all day long was sometimes panting a little, sometimes awake and looking around, without ever getting up.

Our reading for today is from Numbers 9 and 10 where the Israelites and Moses are following a cloud that hangs over the tabernacle to their new land.

“On the day that the tabernacle was set up, [a] cloud covered the tabernacle, the tent of the testimony; and at evening it was over the tabernacle like the appearance of fire until morning. So it was continually; the cloud covered it by day, and the appearance of fire by night. And whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tent, after that the people of Israel set out; and in the place where the cloud settled down, there the people of Israel encamped…whether it was two days, or a month…”

In my anxiety, I knew that a fawn sometimes waits several days for its mother, that a fawn has no scent, and has spots in order to protect itself. But, thankfully, as I kept checking, the fawn was peaceful. I wouldn’t say I thought of gratitude, but faith and trust came to my mind. 

Written by Rebecca Newth

Rebecca Newth is glad that the fawn’s mother came back.