Coyotes

Tuesday 7/8/2014 5:08 AM

Three seems to be a number that plays a prominent role in my life, and others feel the same.  Bad things seem to happen in groups of three.  If I feel God is calling me to do something it usually requires three separate calls before I will respond.

This morning as I ran I saw a pack of three coyotes.  I have seen a single coyote before but never a pack.  As I ran I began to wonder if a pack of three coyotes could take me down and have me for breakfast and realized that they probably could do so.  That was when the worry set in.  Fortunately the pack split up as I neared them and, while two ran past me on the other side of the road, the third ran away from me about a block ahead.  As I ran I kept turning around to see if the two that had run past me were going to change direction and begin pursuing me from the rear.  I ended up cutting my run a little shorter than usual, not wanting to run down my normal dead end road by the park.  Dead end seemed to have a bit of a different connotation today.

After the coyotes left I began wondering if they were an omen and started to think about what three bad things might happen to me.  Would there be illness for me or for a loved one?  Would I, or someone I love, be involved in a serious accident?  All sorts of calamities came to mind, so much so that I was almost ready to start planning a funeral for me or someone else.

God knew I needed reassurance so the first words I read for my devotions today were from my assigned psalm, Psalm 46:1-3, “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.  Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.”  God’s love for me and his protection over me are not determined by my circumstances, even if they come in groups of three.  He is an ever-present help in trouble.

I also read an excerpt from The Soul’s Sincere Desire, by Glenn Clark.  He relates a story from Greek mythology about Hercules wrestling with Antaeus.  When Hercules would throw Antaeus to the earth Antaeus would rise with renewed strength because the Earth was Gaea, his mother.  Hercules ended up prevailing by holding Antaeus high in the air, away from his source of strength.  Clark likens this story to our lives and writes, “We, who are not children of Earth but children of God, could learn much from the lesson of Antaeus.  We too, whenever troubles cast us back upon the bosom of our Father, rise with renewed strength. …  Troubles, misfortunes, disappointments, and handicaps, if they but throw us back upon God, if they merely give us opportunity of bringing into play our God-directed imagination and our heaven-blessed sense of humor, may become converted into marvelous good fortune.  For trouble, if it merely turns us to God and hence renews our strength, ceases to be evil, and becomes good; it becomes the best thing that could possibly come to us, next to God himself.  For our growth in power and happiness depends upon the number of seconds out of each twenty-four hours that we are resting in God.”  Calamities need not be feared if they but drive me into the arms of my loving Father rather than cause me to question God’s love for me.  I pray that the coyotes of life cause me to run to my Father instead of away from him.