{WARNING!} dead animal and a Bible lesson ahead!

Yep, that's a (purposefully) dead deer. 

Yep, that's my kids and my husband. 

I hope no one is offended. 

This is part of our life, and is a great teaching opportunity for everyone in the family.

Marvin hunts on my aunt's land every fall and this year was blessed with a nice buck after only 30 minutes of waiting! He called me right away and at 8:00 am I put the kids in the car and drove 50 minutes for a wonderful Bible, Science, and life skills lesson.

We have just finished talking about how before The Fall, Adam's sin in the Garden of Eden, there was no death. That means that everyone and everything ate only plants! Yes, lions (and people) were vegetarians!

After the disobedience, God sacrificed an animal, shedding blood for the first time, to clothe Adam and Eve. (Genesis 3:21) After this, God listed the consequences for Adam and Eve, among which are pain, hard work, and death. (Genesis 3:14-19)

As we inspected the deer, I reminded the kids of this, and that since we now live in a fallen world, there is death. I also reminded them that God send His son, Jesus, to be the ultimate sacrifice for our sins so that we can have eternal life, to take away the curse of death.

Along with a Bible lesson, the kids got to witness the most excellent biology class ever, taught by their dad! They saw what happens when an animal dies, they saw lungs and intestines, they saw the heart and saw how hard and firm it was and learned why.

Their papa was there, and he talked with them about how thin and small the deers legs are and how it seems like they shouldn't be able to carry the weight of the body and head and how perfectly God designed each animal.

We also discussed what a deer eats, and how important it is that, if you're choosing to eat meat, your meat has eaten what God has naturally provided for it, not feed from a bag with artificial "mystery" ingredients.  I reminded them, too, that we believe it's wrong to kill just for the sake of killing and sport, and that if you are going to kill, you should only do it respectfully and for food and sustenance.

Then, while Ava and I played with my aunt's animals (puppies, horse and donkey! who needs a trip to the zoo?) the boys learned how to field dress a deer and how much work it is, and how heavy it is to drag to the truck. They also learned about coyotes and why it's important to leave the insides of the deer far away from the house!

That was our Saturday last week...Bible, Science, Biology, Physics, life skills, nutrition, and family bonding time...all wrapped up in one last minute trip to the country! This is just one of the many reasons we continue to enjoy teaching our children at home.