The next time the kids came to Dave’s campfire, it was a cold night. The kids were shivering when they came to the campfire, and they were glad to get warm. Dave said that the cold weather was good because tonight they were going to talk about taking a nature hike in the winter.
Hiking in the winter is different from any other time of the year because the weather is cold and there is snow on the ground. A hiker must dress in several layers of clothes so that they stay warm when they are outside. If the snow is deep, they wear snowshoes so that they will not sink into the deep snow.
The woods are very quiet in the winter; there are not many animals or birds to see. Most of the birds have flown to a warmer place to spend the winter, and most of the animals are asleep.
The birds that stay all winter spend every day staying warm and finding enough food to eat. To stay warm, they fluff up their feathers until they look all poofy. This holds their heat close to their body, just like wearing a coat. They fly around to different plants and trees looking for seeds left over from the summertime. The birds must eat a lot every day so that they can survive.
Animals like bears and raccoons eat a lot of food and get very fat just before winter. During the winter God makes these animals go to sleep. Bears sleep all winter, but raccoons will wake up sometimes on warmer day and come out of their home to get some exercise, but they do not need to look for food because they are still very fat, and they are going to go back to sleep.
Squirrels are awake a lot of the time. They stored a lot of nuts and seeds during the summer and fall so that they would have plenty to eat in the winter. Some of their food is stored in their home, but some of it is hidden in other places. On nice days in the winter, squirrels will go to their hidden stores of food and take some of that food to their home.
Some animals, such as foxes, stay awake all winter and go hunting every day for food. Foxes hunt for small animals such as field mice and rabbits. Some days they cannot find any food and then they go hungry!
Deer also stay awake all winter. They stay together in groups at night and usually sleep under evergreen trees. These trees do not lose their leaves in the fall, so they help the deer hide when they are asleep, and they block the cold wind. During the day deer look for food. They go to farm fields and eat any corn or soybeans that fell on the ground during harvest. They also go to the woods and eat berries, twigs, and bark off trees. Sometimes deer will go to a house with bird feeders and eat the birdseed!
To be healthy and survive the winter, animals need to have a supply of food. The same is true of believers. Everyone who has asked Jesus to forgive their sins and come into their life, needs to be fed on a regular basis so that they remain healthy. We can get this spiritual food from several different places; reading the Bible (which is God’s Word), praying, listening to our paster and teachers at Church, and by spending time quietly before God listening to Him and thinking about what we have been taught. As a person spends more and more time being fed spiritual food, they grow stronger and progress to a greater understanding of God and a deeper friendship with God. Just like a baby starts out drinking only milk, and then progresses to solid food, we are expected to progress in our relationship with God. However, some people do not want to grow up spiritually, they are content on just being spiritual babies their whole life. Paul talks about this in the Bible.
In the Bible in I Corinthians 3:1-3 Paul says:
Dear brothers and sisters, when I was with you I couldn’t talk to you as I would to spiritual people. I had to talk as though you belonged to this world or as though you were infants in Christ. I had to feed you with milk, not with solid food, because you weren’t ready for anything stronger. And you still aren’t ready, for you are still controlled by your sinful nature. You are jealous of one another and quarrel with each other. Doesn’t that prove you are controlled by your sinful nature? Aren’t you living like people of the world?
Make it your goal to spend time each day getting spiritual food into your life. Leave the things of this world behind you and desire God more than anything else! It is worth it!