We prayed over dirt, rocks, and the squared-off location of a foundation for a new home. Just close friends and family attended this blessing. Today, will you join us? C’mon, you’re being invited!

How do you bless a future home? How can someone ask God to bless what’s not even there yet?

My prayers must be more substantial than a simple “God is great, God is good, let us thank Him for our food.” It needs to be special. Special, like how this young couple has become to Staci and me.

They’ve moved into this Wet Mountain Valley by way of California! They definitely are “riding different horses” on their journey than this old country boy from Mississippi.

For years I’ve said that we all ride a horse on this spiritual journey. It’s my way of explaining our personal journeys. While we all ride different horses, we are all headed in the same direction.

Some, like my young friends here, had “horses” that carried them on journeys in the big concrete cities in our country. My “horse” carried me to adventures in small-town Mississippi. My friend’s “horses” carried them into the corporate world to make money/hay. Me? Well, my “horse” carried me into the literal hay fields to provide money/hay. Guess I grew up more of a cowboy than I thought.

Our “horses” propel us on our spiritual journey by giving us everyday experiences. This helps us grow our very personal beliefs in a Higher Being.

You’re riding your horse, and for no reason she spooks and throws you. Or maybe she’s stubborn when it comes time to open a gate. Perhaps more common among us all is this. You lack direction, thus your “horse” is lost.

I’ve ridden that horse many times in my journey through life.

What gets lost on this trail of life are all the things we have in common. Seems like the world today wants us to focus on our differences rather than what we have in common.

The differences? This young couple is from California! I’m from Mississippi. They worked and lived in huge concrete cities. I worked barefoot in the mud. (I didn’t want to get my shoes dirty, ha)

They are healthy and choose to eat healthy food. I eat Cheetos!

I could go on and on about how different we are. But then again, I won’t. Why? Even with all the differences in our “horses”, they are so much like Staci and me. I hope in their eyes that it’s a good thing.

Our “horses” provide a way of giving and receiving love with our family members. We have a love for the land and wildlife that we get to enjoy. Laughter is something we all enjoy. Spending time in nature is something we love. We choose to live life to the fullest. We love the outdoors. With prayer, we thank God for all that He has provided.

This might explain their asking me to invoke blessings for their new dwelling.

By wisdom a house is built, and through understanding it is established; through knowledge its rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasures. Proverbs 23: 3-4.

Symbolic meanings filled my prayers. That’s why I wove a rope decoration for their new home. Everyone there tied a small piece of cord to each other, forming one unified rope. This demonstrated community support for their new home endeavor.

I wrapped a gold cord firmly around the balled-up cord representing all individuals connected to these couples. This demonstrated God’s provision and protection for residents plus this house being built.

The cross in the decoration is symbolic of how Jesus is the go-between for me and this Holy Omnipotent Being that I’m asking for blessings. I can talk to Jesus just like I can talk to a horse. What’s crazy is that I can hear from them both!

All this symbolism and me saying a prayer wouldn’t give a raindrop’s amount of blessings to this new home. There was even another great prayer given by someone who gave such meaningful words.

Our prayers asked for peace, joy, happiness, love, laughter, whew, and a higher way of living for this future home.

To show respect to this property and realizing we weren’t the first people to ride “horses” on this ground, I gave a lot of the blessing using Native American language. It gave it an organic, authentic voice, asking for blessings on their time spent on this mountainside.

This home will be blessed. Not from my praying, but who we prayed to. Not from our prayers, but from our God because of Jesus. All who enter my friend’s new home will feel His love, His mercy, and His protection.

I can’t wait for this house to be built and truly become a blessed home. I bet they’ll let me walk in barefoot!

Staci, my wife, soulmate, and today also my hunting companion, is yelling at a squirrel being chased by my red-tailed hawk, Tama. “Run, Chatterbox, run!”

This squirrel chatters well, hence his name. He is not good at escaping my hawk. My falconry bird, Tama, has caught Chatterbox five times. How is this possible, you ask?

Falconry is the hunting of wild animals in their natural state and habitat by means of a trained bird of prey. In my personal experience with falconry, it means I hunt squirrels and rabbits using a red-tailed hawk.

No gun, nothing but taking the hawk out into the woods and fields and letting her be who God created her to be. Raptors, like her, kill and eat prey. Sharp talons, and powerful beak, and keen eyesight are her tools used to spot the next meal from distances far away.

My thrill in hunting with a red-tailed hawk is watching the chase. It’s not necessarily the kill. Nature has a way of using life and death to keep things in balance. People who do not know about falconry might think it is cruel, as the prey frequently gets eaten. It reminds me of when we “civilized” humans view a National Geographic film showing the zebra being chased by the lion. Naturally, we all cheer for the Zebra hoping the mean lion will miss. We overlook that three young lions also require meat to survive.

Nature’s “survival of the fittest” often sees hawks capturing and consuming squirrels. But we caught silly Chatterbox 5 times! How?

When Tama grabs the squirrel, she doesn’t stab it with her sharp talons. She grabs and squeezes with all her strength. Picture a baseball player submerged beneath teammates in a dog pile, celebrating a victory strikeout. Better get him up so he can breathe. Or picture someone bear-hugging you so tight you can’t breathe. You will literally pass out in seconds.

Here is the trick. When Tama catches a squirrel, she “parachutes” down to the ground with her catch. She locks on and squeezes with all her strength. If I get there within, say, 15 seconds, I can save the squirrel from her grip.

Birds of prey have an uncanny ability with their eyesight. Also, if they don’t see something, then in their mind it doesn’t exist. Approaching the squirrel and hawk engaged in conflict, I rapidly covered the squirrel using a towel. Immediately, I show the hawk a fresh chicken leg. Tama instinctively grabs the chicken leg and in the same motion, I grab the squirrel with my gloved hand.

While she is feasting on her KFC chicken meal, I swing the squirrel around behind my back and release him. He’s free to go his merry way. Lord, have mercy!

This might make it clearer why Staci cheers for the squirrel and I for the hawk when we hunt together.

Staci and I have fished and hunted together practically all our lives. How many people get to say their dates involved frog gigging, snake hunting, and dove shoots? We also did the ordinary dates of eating out, going to the drive-in for movies, and church youth socials. All that was just ordinary (well, maybe not at the drive-in). Lord, have mercy.

We are both big hunters, but we are both tenderhearted and compassionate towards animals. Unnecessary harm and cruelty are not involved in true hunting. There is a standard of ethics involved in hunting. Maybe that’s a hard thought to understand unless you are a hunter with a big heart yourself.

Anyway, Staci has been supporting silly Chatterbox as he is being chased. “Run, run, run!” she says.

Chatterbox climbs the same tree and scampers up to the very top. At the very top he has come to the end of the branches, so now it’s jump or remain still. He jumps, but he hesitates. That’s when Tama swoops in and grabs Chatterbox with her talons/claws. She then floats down to the ground. We say the hawk is “parachuting”.

Instantly Staci says, “Lord have mercy!” She looks at me and yells, “Run, Dan, run!”

I’m already running, dodging vines and branches as I hastily make my way to Tama and her victim. The “Lord have mercy” routine, we call it, is quickly in play. I threw the blanket over the captured squirrel and showed Tama the delicious chicken leg. She goes for it, and all is well in the forest.

I’m delighted by the incredible bird’s performance. The hawk is happy as she is gorging on her chicken leg meal. Staci’s happy, which makes me happier than two teenagers at the drive-in. And Chatterbox,….. well, he’s happy, although I don’t think he realizes what just happened.

It’s difficult to know what a squirrel is thinking. Their brains are small. It seems they have trouble deciding whether to cross a road in front of your oncoming car. In Chatterbox’s situation, one would think he would learn from this. Lord have mercy, because he doesn’t.

Over the next few days, we would hunt this exact tree. Each visit yielded a squirrel close by. Either on the ground or climbing somewhere in the tree. You guessed it. It was the one and only Chatterbox!

So, that’s how Tama caught this squirrel 5 times.

The third time was sketchy. As nimbly and gracefully as a deer, I ran to the hawk and squirrel; I tripped and face-planted right into the leaves covering the ground. I lost precious seconds checking to see if any teeth had come loose or if there were any fractures or broken bones. Thankfully, I got to the scene of the hunting capture and freed Chatterbox once again. I had to voice aloud the phrase “Lord have mercy”, as this was now a ritual with this squirrel and his unwillingness to learn from his mistakes.

As Staci and I make our way back home, I comment about how stupid her “pet” squirrel is. Her reply got me thinking. “He’s not stupid; he just can’t help himself.”

I guess we humans (myself included) can’t help ourselves sometimes. You would think that we would learn from our mistakes. One would think that our people’s brains are much superior to a squirrel’s brain, but actions prove otherwise. A predator is out to get us. Divine intervention and God’s mercy have saved us from the consequences of our behavior many times over.

Lord have mercy. And He does.

We all know “that guy” that can’t help himself. You could be that person. When we do wrong or bring harm to someone or ourselves, it is easy to place the blame on others. Rather than play the blame game and all the negativity associated with it, I’m choosing to focus on the power of God’s mercy.

Rather than badmouthing someone (or myself) over constant failures and shortcomings, maybe I should give attention to God’s saving grace and mercy.

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. John 3:17.

I witnessed Chatterbox receive several doses of mercy. Did he deserve it? Probably not. Will he ever learn from it? He hasn’t so far.

What about the survival of the fittest? In nature, only the best survive, whether a squirrel or me and you.

But in God’s universe, He loves each of us so much that He dishes out His mercy constantly. Thank goodness!

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ-by grace you have been saved. Ephesians 2:4-5.

So God loves me so much that I can do whatever I want and be as stupid as I desire, and God’s going to show me mercy? Well, no. Let’s save that discussion for another campfire chat. For now, look at your situation like this.

Chatterbox is still around because of mercy. Looks like you are still around too. Learn from your mistakes and shortcomings. Be grateful for God’s mercy in your life. His desire is for you to grow closer to Him. Several doses of mercy should inspire you to turn your spiritual journey towards God and his mercy for you.

Tama was one of my best hawks. In one hunting season she harvested 48 squirrels. Because of Mercy, Chatterbox’s 5 times are not included in that list. Lord have mercy!

See Ya! DanAinsworth Wilderness Preacher and receiving mercy myself

CLICK HERE https://youtu.be/QRgyQysAYRk

We did this 11 years ago, but folks still ask us about it. Enjoy this short video! https://youtu.be/QRgyQysAYRk