An Uncertain Sound

I decided to go for a walk in the woods behind my house. After a short walk, I ended up climbing up in the old tree house that is overlooking the creek. It was a beautiful fall afternoon with a gentle south breeze blowing. I started thinking about the varied sounds that I was hearing in the woods. The wind was rustling the leaves on the ground. Acorns were dropping onto the ground every few seconds. Occasionally I would hear the creaking sound of two tree limbs running against each other.


The woods produce a great variety of sounds. These sounds are strange and sometimes disturbing to the untrained ear. Many times, while deer hunting, I would hear what I thought was a deer walking through the woods, only to find out that it was an armadillo rooting around in the leaves. During an ice storm I keep hearing what sounded like gun shots in the woods behind my house. On later investigation I discovered that the noise was coming from trees that were breaking under the weight of their ice laden limbs.

The night time brings even more uncertain and sometimes frightening sounds. The eastern screech owl has a call that sounds just like a woman screaming! When a group of coyotes gather in the woods behind my house and start yelping, it makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck! I even had some new neighbors who called 911 when they first heard the coyotes!

My first night in the Amazon jungle was one that I will never forget. I was staying in a thatched roofed bamboo hut that was about 10 foot above the ground on stilts. The hut was directly under some type of fruit tree. All night long I heard the continual sounds of the tree's berries dropping on the hut's thatched roof, rolling down to the edge of the roof, and then after a second or so, the sound of them splattering on the ground. None of the jungle's night creature sounds were familiar to me. I wasn't sure if the sounds were coming from crickets, frogs, birds, or whatever! It seemed like hours had passed by before I finally drifted off to sleep.

In Bible time the sound of the trumpet was used to direct soldiers during a battle. The soldier's ears had to be trained to hear and interpret the sounds of the trumpet. I Corinthians 14:8 says "if the trumpet gives an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?" The watchmen on the walls of the Bible time cities also used a trumpet to warn the people of impending danger.

There is another trumpet sound, talked about in the Bible, that nobody wants to miss! I Thessalonians 4:16 tells us that a trumpet sound will signal the second coming of Christ and that we will all rise to meet Jesus in the air! So don't be too disturbed by the various "uncertain sounds" of the woods but be on guard for that great and last trumpet call of Jesus!

It Never Rains in the Amazon Jungle

    One of my life’s goals was to visit to the Amazon Jungle. I have watched many National Geographic TV specials on the Amazon and wanted to witness its beauty first hand. About ten years ago I decide to take my dream trip to the Amazon. I first started looking for jungle lodges in Brazil. I wanted to find the most remote and biodiverse region available.   I settled on a lodge in Peru that was 90 miles from the nearest city by boat, and that nearest city could only be accessed by air.  I stayed at the Tahuayo Lodge that is adjacent to the 800,000 acre Tamshiyacu-Tahuayo Communal Reserve. 

The area was an absolute paradise for nature lovers. The reserve supports 14 species of primates and over 500 species of birds!  It was truly amazing to experience the jungle first hand. I learned so many things that you could never learn from just watching a TV show on the jungle. The primary rain forest trees were almost one hundred feet in height, or as tall as a 10 story building! Only a small amount of light was able to filter through the trees and down to the ground. 

Because of the low light, my photography was limited to several hours before and after the noon time, when the sun was almost directly overhead.  It was not uncommon to hear a group of monkeys coming toward you, hear them directly overhead, and then hear them moving off into the distance, without ever catching a glimpse of them. The thick jungle forest also acted like a great insulator. With Peru located near the equator the days at the lodge were in the mid 90’s but entering the forest was just like walking into an air conditioned room. The temperature under the jungle canopy was 10-15 degrees cooler than in the open areas exposed to the sun! I had the most amazing jungle experience when it started to rain. I was in one of the thick jungle areas. I started to feel a light mist falling through the jungle canopy. After walking for half an hour we arrive at an open area, with no trees overhead, and was shocked to see that it was raining heavily! There was no rain reaching the jungle floor because it was being almost totally absorbed by the jungle canopy!  I was told that the “jungle mist” would continue for several days after a hard rain. 

     Just as the thick jungle canopy provides protection from the heavy rain, so does living in the “kingdom of God” provide a shield for us. In several New Testament scriptures Jesus admonishes us to “seek ye first the kingdom of God”. In the “Lords Prayer” where Jesus gives us an example on how to pray, the first request we are to make is “thy kingdom come”. In Romans 14:17, Paul provides a description for the “kingdom of God”. Paul says: “the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost”. In plain English, Paul is saying that the “kingdom of God” is not about getting to eat what we want or do the things we want, but that the “kingdom of God” is about having a peace and joy on our heart!   So, even thought we might not have all the physical things we want in life, and we may be going through tribulations, we can still have the peace and joy that is promised to those who are in his kingdom!

Social Spiders

      Spiders are creatures that we don’t typically get too close to. They are characterized by eight legs, fangs for injecting venom, and up to four pair of eyes! Spiders use hydraulic pressure to control their legs, and this is why the legs of a dead spider curl up. They have two or more pairs of spinnerets for spinning silk for various uses. Most spiders are severely lacking in the social skills area. They typically live alone, are very aggressive, and would just as soon eat another spider as look at it.

     Out of the over 40,000 species of spiders, there are a handful that defy the typical “non-social” stereotype. These “social spiders” live together in communities of up to 50,000 spiders. They work together to build communal webs that can be very large in size. These social spiders are known to catch and consume all sizes of insects and even small birds.

    I was able to see a group of social spiders in action, during a trip to the Amazon. We were motoring slowly down the Blanco River in the Tamshiyacu Tahuayo Reserve in Peru. Up ahead I saw something that looked like a cloud, hanging over the trees at the edge of the river. As we got closer, I could see that it was an enormous spider web! The web was as large as the side of a two story house! I was told that this was a spider web built by social spiders. We did not get close enough to see the size of the spiders, and nobody was asking to get any closer!


     Just as God designed the social spiders to depend on each other for survival, he designed people to also depend on each other. In I Corinthians 12 Paul tells us that we are part of the “body of Christ” and explains how it takes all the parts of the body functioning together to make us whole. We are not designed to live alone; we are created to work together in the body of Christ. A social spider taken out of its community web would not last long. Likewise, a person, taken out of their Christian community environment, may have difficulties. We need the encouragement and support of the Christian community. If you are struggling in your Christian walk, check and make sure that you are still in an active Christian community! Keep yourself surrounded by strong Christian friends and you will thrive just as the social spiders I saw in the Amazon!