Some fishing stories are hard to believe but there are pictures to prove this one. What I am about to share may just be a “once in the history of mankind” kind of story. You have no doubt heard stories of fish jumping into boats but you have probably never heard a story like this one.

Tom Satre not only shared the story but he shared his pictures with the Sitka, Alaska Gazette to back up his story. Tom was out with a charter group on his 62 foot fishing vessel, the Alaska Quest, when four juvenile black-tailed deer swam directly toward his boat. Once the deer reached the boat, the four young bucks began to circle the boat looking directly at the fishermen. Tom opened the back gate of his boat and helped the typically skittish and absolutely wild animals onto the boat. Once on the boat they collapsed with exhaustion, shivering.

Tom headed for Taku Harbour with his new passengers aboard. Once they reached the dock, the first buck that had been pulled from the icy waters hopped onto the dock, looked back as if to say “Thank You” and disappeared into the forest. After a bit of prodding and assistance, two more followed but the smallest deer needed a little more help. So Tom placed him in a wheelbarrow. With the assistance of his daughter, Anna, and son, Tim, they got the little fellow on his feet and onto the dock. Anna told her Dad that the experience was something that she would never forget. Undoubtedly the deer must have felt the same.

Tom said,, “Our Lord works in mysterious ways .”Kindness,” Mark Twain said, “is the language the blind can see and the deaf can hear.” Jesus said, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

If a group of fisherman can be so humane, kind and loving toward distressed deer, can you imagine what a better world we would have if everyone treated their fellowman with such consideration as they treated those desperate deer?

Reality tells us that our world is not a kind world. The aggressiveness of ISIS with devastating results in downing a Russian airliner, a mass casualty bombing in Lebanon and the carnage in France stand in dark contrast to love and kindness. World leaders must come together to deal with man’s inhumanity to man. Never has prayer and the Gospel of Jesus Christ been so needed as it is today.

In His Love, Charles

Thought of the Week for: November 17