Of Legislation; and Bears

Have I mentioned the bear incident?  I think of it today, after hearing that the Senate has voted to approve the ‘Marriage Bill’.  This is the recent bill to destroy marriage, by making it meaningless.  Codifying into the law that marriage can be pretty much anything you want it to be - and that that new definition can be shoved down the throat - legally - of any who hold to the biblical meaning; it seems a fairly formidable thing in the life of the Church; and faith.  The law, after all, is powerful.  As powerful as men.

Which is what, I suppose, brought the bear incident to mind.

Before I tell this tale, let me state that my excuse - which I hold to - is that we were young and stupid, my husband and I.  We decided to go camping in the Shenandoah Valley mountains.  I had grown up camping; and I was ‘the expert’ - at least in my own eyes.  We borrowed a tent and camping equipment; and somehow thought it was a great idea to go hike, and then sleep, in the wilderness.  What could be more fun for a couple of 20-something year-olds?

And it was fun.  Well almost, the 2-mile hike almost killed us - and it was even downhill.  But nonetheless, the cliff edge we decided to pitch our tent on offered us a beautiful view.  We even got a cute little fire going and prepared some kind of dinner to eat.  All was going swimmingly - till the bears showed up.  At first it was quite exciting - “Oh! - look on the hillside over there - a bear!”  He was a yearling - over 6 feet on hind legs; but still kind of a ‘puppy’.  Let’s call him “Junior”.

As you’ll see, there’s a reason for that name.

Nonetheless, being a ‘photographer’ in those days (hey, I developed my own negatives - so that qualifies!), I grabbed my zoom lens to, well, zoom in.  It was a great zoom lens, even though it made the camera look kind of like a gun.  I pointed my ‘master photographer’ camera at Junior to zoom in and get a great shot of his cute bear face.

And that’s when we heard the roaring. 

Quick as a wink, I ‘zoomed’ to the right and beheld, after much frantic focusing, MAMA Bear.  She was NOT a ‘puppy’.  She was absolutely huge, absolutely furious, and absolutely TERRIFYING.  We later thought that perhaps she didn’t like the looks of the ‘gun’; but most likely, she didn’t like the looks of us.  It was, after all, her wilderness - not ours.

But none of that matters, because, once we discovered the extent of her displeasure, things kicked into high gear.  Bob realized that all the talk we had had to ‘get the food out of the campsite so we don’t attract bears’ was perhaps a job that needed to happen NOW.  As he grabbed the food and ran to toss it further into the woods, Junior approached.  Me, being not quite a REAL camping expert - did what an idiot camper would do - I jumped in the tent. Somehow, I must have thought that zipping up the cloth side of the tent would protect me from harm.  Sounds reasonable, right?  Ask a 2 year old why he’s ‘hiding’ by closing his eyes, and you’ll probably get the same answer.

Bob arrived back at the campsite to find no sight of me; and Junior poking his nose around the tent.  So, Bob did the manly, but equally ‘non-expert’, thing of shaking a big stick at a bear…  For some strange reason, that didn’t exactly terrify Junior - at least not as much as his Mama had terrified us.  He just turned his attention on Bob, rose to his hind feet, and approached him with arms (or is it legs?) swinging.

Bob discovered that he was capable of shimming straight up a tree in a second flat.  He immediately thought - “I should have picked a bigger tree.”

Nonetheless, Junior couldn’t reach him, and now bored with his teenage attention span; he turned back to the tent.  I guess I figured that if I was really quiet, he - a wild animal - would not be able to tell I was in it.  That theory, along with all my other expert ones - exploded at the same time as the side of the tent.  Next thing I knew, a huge claw was ripping away my hiding place - and I was screaming at the top of my lungs.

Finally, something DID shake up Junior; the decibel level of my voice.  He kind of jumped back a bit, and sauntered away.  Bob called out from his perch - “SUSAN!!!  RUNNNNNNNN!!!!”.  That was my thought also, but I was frantically clawing through everything trying to find the car keys since I instinctively realized that until we were safely ensconced in thick metal - we were goners.  The longest split seconds in my life passed until I found the keys; and grabbing a small hatchet for protection - I fled out the now open side.  Bob grabbed a knife, and he and I ran, and I mean FLAT . OUT . RAN, up the side of the mountain the entire 2 miles.  We were not even winded when we got to the car.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is my lesson on adrenaline.

But I digress…  Anyway, the funny thing is that for weeks afterward, as I went about my work day life in Washington, DC, I no longer had any fear of muggers.  Having seen raw, brute strength and power - what the heck could a mere human do to me?!!!

Which brings me to the Marriage Bill.

Have you gone to the ocean lately?  Climbed any mountains?  Have you watched the birds soar and spin in the sky?  Have you counted the stars at night; seen the sun and moon rising and descending?

Well, guess WHO made all of that?

The Same God who said that: “You must neither add anything to what I command you nor take away anything from it, but keep the commandments of the Lord your God with which I am charging you.”  Deut. 4:2.

For those who are perhaps are a little slow- He repeats it a short time later with: “You must diligently observe everything that I command you; do not add to it or take anything from it.” Deut. 12:32

His Son reiterated this point hundreds of years later, with: “Don’t misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to accomplish their purpose.” Matt. 5:17

But perhaps the scariest verse - for those who think they can just decide what ‘love’ is - regardless of form or function; or even God’s Spoken Law - is found in Galatians:  "Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap." Gal. 6:7.

Kind of like MY law ever since the Bear Incident: “Do not be deceived: bears are not mocked; nor find it funny if you think you have the right to do whatever you want in their woods.  Mess with them; and you’re toast.”

So, I guess you can understand why my Bear Incident came to mind upon hearing this latest news.  (Some) Modern men seem to think that THEY get to make the rules; that what THEY say goes - and ALL; and they mean GOD HIMSELF - must toe the line to their new rules, new interpretations of HIS Word, new kind of “Love”… or else.

All I can say is - if you think a wild bear tearing through your tent is a little scary - just wait until you fall into the hands of the Living God…

May He have mercy on us all.