The Faithful Man

Christopher Gabriel is one of the most genuinely faithful people I know. He says “Praise the Lord” on an hourly basis because he knows that “Every good and perfect thing comes from above”. He is truly, wholly, completely committed to the Father, more so than any grown man I have ever known. His childlike faith has astounded those who are strangers to him on more than one occasion, because he is so innocently faithful. Now, this isn’t to say that he doesn’t have general 8-year-old boy tendencies, because he does…..he REALLY does. But his relationship with God outweighs all of that, all of the running around banging immovable objects to get attention, rubber band fights, and intentional belly flops in the pool to make his sisters cringe. His faith is enviable even to his older sister, who is astounded at the clarity in the trust he puts in God. In the unwavering belief that God will always come through. That in all circumstances to “praise the Lord!”, because even in our darkest, most trying times, He is worthy to be praised. Yes, Christopher is a faithful man.

Now, I do have a point in saying all of this. I’m not just randomly bragging on the ever-obvious spiritual maturity of my little brother.

My daddy has been an avid hunter all of his life and naturally Christopher inherited his love of the outdoors and all things camouflage and gun-oriented. Ever since the time that the Lord up and decided to make us “horse people” dairy farmers, the opportune time has not arisen for Christopher to go hunting. He has not complained. He has not grown discouraged or lost heart. He has prayed. And prayed. And prayed. And yes, he has bugged the living daylights out of his sisters talking about hunting deer, and “when he shoots his first deer”, but other than that he has been faithful to put his full trust in the Father to allow him to go deer hunting at the right time, and because we serve a faithful God, He indeed provided the perfect time for Christopher to go hunting this season (on many different occasions!).

With that said, here is the boy and his first does:

And, as expected, when he called to tell me the good news the first thing he said was, “Praise the Lord, Laura! I shot a deer!”.

Because that is who my little brother is: A faithful man.