An Infallible Camera

   As I walked out this morning, on a short loop around a couple of holes on the golf course, in order to wake up and get moving, the dew was heavy on the ground. This was especially noticeable where the grass had been cut closer, around the tee boxes and the greens. From the tracks in the dew covered grass, several animals had been active during the night. There were tracks of various sizes all over the place. There was no doubt in my mind that something had been going on while I slept, but what and who was it?

   I thought that it might be a neat idea to have some kind of camera stationed there, one that would be activated by movement, that would silently record the going-ons in those hours before dawn. In that way I could be sure, and not just speculate. The evidence was there, but was it deer, raccoons, rabbits, or something else, that had come out of the marsh?

   As I read, before I ventured out in the dewy morning, the verses in John 10 that spoke thusly:

   “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep."

   and more words of Jesus farther down:

   "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep."

   I thought about the issue of truth. Just had something walked around the tee box sometime during the dark hours, even though I had not seen them myself, the evidence showed that they had indeed been there, there had to be an absolute truth there. Something did happen, but I needed a source that would tell me what.

   To further complicate my thoughts on all of this, last evening I read an article on the Internet, written by a professor in Utah, who was explaining why he had left the LDS church and become Catholic. At the end of the article, there were a bunch of comments, written by other readers, who reacted all the way from ridicule to affirmation and touching all the stops in between. Were all viewpoints valid? Were they true?

   Something did happen 2,000 years ago that begat the Catholic church, just as something did happen in the 1820s that gave rise to the Mormon church. If they disagree, both cannot be right and true.

   Can I put this religious issue together with my nature study? Can I find an infallible camera that will give me the truth on both?

   The Bible is mine on the former, but I'll have to wait for a new one on animal life in the night.