Where the Blood Falls

The following series of devotionals are taken from Dr. Tim Miller’s book, Seasons of Reflection. You can find out more about Tim’s ministry and order the book by visiting www.disciplethenations.com.

Louisiana, “Sportsman’s Paradise” read the tag on the slowly passing vehicle. I could hardly wait to get there. I was on my way to visit a long-time friend and boyhood companion, Roger Tanner, for a three-day bow hunt in northern Louisiana. Roger had harvested some nice whitetails over the years. Needless to say, I was excited he had invited me to share in a few hunts. The stands were already in place. The only problem was I had to do a lot of climbing on this particular hunt. I had to climb out of bed, into the truck, off the four-wheeler, and up the tree. Boy, talk about an easy hunt. Roger had really gone out of his way to make this an enjoyable experience.

The first few hours on the stand, I saw numerous does and a small buck. Since we were not trophy hunting, any deer would be fair game. However, none had come within comfortable shooting distance. About 9:30 am a small buck appeared and was moving away from my stand. I had a good quartering away shot at twenty yards and decided to take the shot. The arrow flew true to aim and the buck crashed out of sight. An hour later, Roger showed up and we began the tracking process.

I am red color deficient and this makes tracking a real job. What other hunters can see easily, takes great effort on my part. I must track extremely slowly to follow a blood trail and many times get down on my hands and knees to see any blood at all. Others without my handicap can walk slowly and never stop as they follow a “good blood trail.”

On this particular occasion, I was thankful Roger was trailing with me. Roger was walking in front as I followed behind. Suddenly, he abruptly stopped and put his hand behind him causing me to stop as well. He slowly backed up. Then, he said, “look right there.” As my eyes focused on the trail, I noticed a copperhead fully coiled. He had several drops of bright red blood on his back! Evidently, my deer had walked or jumped directly over the snake and left this vile creature covered with his blood. After killing the snake, we soon recovered my young buck. Roger and I sat and admired the plumpness of the young three-pointer. We had a great hunt those next few days and arrowed several other deer. But our conversation kept turning to the blood-covered snake.

Challenge: Details in life are important. If you don’t believe that, then just ask a
woman! Many times men miss the most basic details. The MOST important detail to recognize is our need for cleansing. Sometimes, we need help tracking along the path of life - someone needs to point out the blood. Only the blood of Jesus can cleanse us from the vileness of sin. People can be quite venomous at times, especially with our words and actions. We deserve death as a consequence to the deadly poison we sometimes spread.

Thoughts: The blood of Jesus can cleanse the vilest person. I thank God His precious blood has covered me. Are you covered by His blood?



“All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned his own way; But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.” (Isaiah 53:6)

“In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses…” (Ephesians 1:7)

Posted by Tim E. Miller