Several years ago on a balmy September morning, I found myself along with my faithful retriever Lady on a brush island in the back of a cove on Lake O’ the Pines.

We were there for two reasons: The first reason was to hunt teal and the second reason was to spend time with Lady since she was one of the dogs I had agreed to sell to another duck hunter. Lady was an absolute dream dog. She was perfectly calm and steady in the blind, yet she was fast and full of fire on her retrieves. Lady could run blind retrieves with whistle commands and hand signals at distances over 200 yards. Lady had been our go-to dog and had picked up countless ducks as we guided hunting trips.

I had grown very attached to her and I was kind of sad. However, even though I literally had a tear in my eye during our last hunt together, I knew this was part of being in the dog business. The morning was unusually slow to start with absolutely no teal flying.

This was definitely not looking like the kind of hunt I had envisioned for our last memory together. After hunting for over an hour with no action I had a little talk with the Lord. I told Him that I wasn’t going to make a deal and promise to become a preacher since I already was one, but I explained to him that I had killed piles of ducks in my life but had never killed a banded duck.

I asked if He would please send one my way and in exchange for Him doing this I would retell this story every time I had a chance.  Within just a few minutes of my prayer I was still sitting there with full expectation of seeing absolutely nothing when out of the corner of my eye a teal buzzes the decoys.  My slow reaction resulted in the duck escaping without a shot fired.

I quickly hit my duck call and began giving my best impersonation of a mallard since I didn’t even know how to call a teal at the time.  The call wasn’t convincing enough to bring the teal into the decoys but it did turn him back to my direction.  As he flew over at a distance far too high to make an ethical kill, I did what many weak duck hunters do and shot anyway!  On my third out of range shot at a distance near 80 yards the duck folded up! I was amazed!

Lady marked the bird precisely as it fell well beyond the decoys. As she sat calmly waiting for a command from her master, I slowly lowered my hand to point in the direction of the duck and called her name to send her for the retrieve. As. Lady began her swim, I remembered my prayer and thought how awesome it would be if this duck was banded … After a long swim she returns with nothing less than a freshly banded teal! To say that I was shocked and amazed would be a huge understatement. Almost unbelievable!

Here is what I learned … The God who parted the Red Sea, calmed the storms, walked on water, and commanded the fish to swallow Jonah was also in control of the ducks!  This story is a continual reminder to me that God is in control and He continues to amaze me with his blessings and goodness!  No matter the situation you find yourself in always remember the God is able to do more than you could ask or imagine!

Obviously I’m not telling you that all you have to do is pray for a 10-point buck to appear and it will happen. Believe me I have tried this several times with no luck.

What I am saying is simply that God is able to do great things.  I say all of this to let you know that God is concerned with even the small details of your life and he is able to affect the outcome of every situation. When you find yourself needing a little help from above just remember … it never hurts to pray.