Eyes in the Dark
- Joshua Venturo
- 54 minutes ago
- 3 min read
Yellow eyes shone out of the black forest, just outside the half-circle of white light our headlamps made. One winked out, then they both disappeared. Moments later, the eyes shown again, this time a few feet to the left.
We summited this small Nevada mountain on a nice afternoon hike
We had to do something. It was winter in the northern Nevada hills. The days had been getting shorter, and we were out later than we expected. The eyes, and whatever creature they belonged to, were right ahead, on the trail. Should we run at the creature and try to scare it off? Should we stay put . . . or back up slowly? Without any discussion or decision, we simultaneously began to walk toward the eyes. We had to get to the trailhead, yes—but the force driving us forward was more the result of the adventurous drive within us than our need to make it to the trailhead that night. For each of us knew we had to find our what the creature was before it made its retreat. We slowly advanced, keeping our lights trained on the brush where the eyes had gone out.
We enjoyed a beautiful sunset from the summit of our mountain. Unfortunately, the gorgeous spectacle on the summit now would mean a hurried descent in the dark later.
“Look! There!” Mom pointed into the brushy shadows. Crouched low, under a forked branch, the eyes peered into our lights. Almost before we saw it, the creature turned tail and crept away without a sound. One furry flash of tan through a hole in the brush and it was gone.
In a moment, our voices, which had dropped to a whisper, grew in volume to their normal pitch, and we began to excitedly discuss what the animal could have been. As we walked down the trail, we talked about the options. Coyote? We started with the common animal possibilities.
“It could not have been a coyote!” I objected. “It was too quiet!”
Kelly agreed. It had to have been some kind of cat. By the time we got to the trailhead, we had narrowed it down to two options: a mountain lion or a bobcat. I guess we’ll never know for sure. After all, we only saw the eyes!
Over the past few weeks, I’d been thinking about mountain lions. There was the sign, for one. At that campground there had been a sign printed with the words Cougar Seen and the date.
This happened a week before we arrived!
Then, there were the tracks. That day we followed the tracks of a large mountain lion through the snowy woods.
A line of cougar tracks: a sobering thing to see at 4:00 am when you're the only people on the mountain.
Through these experiences, I have learned to take seriously the lesson of 1 Peter 5:8:“Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”
Maybe you have heard stories of mountain lion attacks. We should be even more aware of the danger of the devil than the danger of wild animals. So keep watching! Be serious! Think of practical ways you can fight the devil and be ready!
Featured artwork by Daniel Venturo. Photos by Jenny Venturo
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, Used by permission. All rights reserved.
