I had such good intentions of sharing all about the camping trip of our summer. I got a great start and then time got in the way. You can read about this camping trip here and here, if you haven’t already.
Today I made time to share this particular sweet story with you because I feel like it the most momentous part of our camping trip. I saved it for last because I keep relishing in the glory of what happened.
Where we went camping is considered “Moose country”. Right before you hit there is a moose visitor center. The one thing Ryan wanted to see was a moose on this trip. He has lived in Colorado his entire life and he cannot ever recall seeing one. According to his dad, Ryan was three when he saw one which explains why he has no recollection of it.
Before leaving for our camping trip, we were at the library one day and the little gal that works the children section had asked A what she thought she would see. A replied, “I want to see a deer!” I was a bit surprised because we never really talked about seeing a deer on our camping trip but it was on a’s heart that we were going to see a deer. She literally talked about it all week and then she continued to constantly talk about it the entire time we were camping.
On the second day in our camper A sat on the floor and I heard her speaking, “please let me see a moose and deer. I want to see a moose and a deer in Jesus we pray, Amen.” My heart skipped a beat listening to her say her sweet little prayer.
Knowing the desire of Ryan’s heart to see a moose and the desire of his heart to see a deer I had it heavily on my heart that I knew we were going to see one. On the second day will finding a spot to camp I saw the mama moose and her baby walk into the forest. I yelled Ryan’s name and threw my arm across his chest as he was driving and he slammed on the brakes. But the excitement my voice was probably a little bit louder than it should’ve been and the moose ran into the forest. I was absolutely heartbroken that we didn’t see it as a family. But it gave me hope.
God knows my heart and he laid the promise of my heart that we would in fact see a moose in a deer. I could see it in my mind. The moose was a large male standing in a big open field. My heart so badly wanted this for Ryan and so badly wanted A to see her deer.
On the night before we left we headed down the first path where I saw the mama moose and her baby. We didn’t see one but there in the field was a deer. We saw a quick glimpse but A got to see her deer and she was ecstatic. We then went on down the road to Ranger Lakes to fish. On our way, we had heard from the gal at the little shop that we stopped in to get our fishing worms that at the dusk over on the pass there’s always Moose.
We did our fishing and we headed towards the pass. Ryan really wanted to see his moose but it was getting late and we knew that we needed to feed the kids. So we started down the road towards the pass and there he was in the field. A big beautiful moose was a great big set of antlers.
We looked closer and there was a deer in the field too. They both stood there staring at us as we breathed in what we were seeing. Both the deer and the moose sat there in the field just like a had prayed. Just like we had hoped. Both small and seemingly silly prayers were answered right there in that field. We didn’t have to track along ways to find them they showed up right there when God decided the timing was perfect.
Moose are incredibly elusive and so being able to see him and watch his behavior and follow him as he walked the field was absolutely perfect. Of all five days, seeing God in those moments and those simple prayers was my favorite part of our entire trip. I felt like it served as a really great reminder God hears all of the desires of our heart and he wants nothing more than to give us just that. 
Seeing Ryan see that moose he’s been dying to see all these years? Magical.
Seeing A’s prayers answered right before her eyes? Undeniably blissful.
