A Father's Instinct

Three weeks ago, Johan Otter and his daughter, Jenna, 18, were hiking in Montana ’s Glacier National Park .  While coming up on a blind switchback, the pair surprised a grizzly bear with two cubs just feet away. *

“This bear is coming right at me,” Otter describes the bear charging him, 
“and mouth wide open, you see the FANGS and you see the huge CLAWS.”  
The grizzly bit Otter to the bone in his right arm, his left arm and thigh.  It also trampled upon Otter’s back.

“I think at that point I actually grabbed it by the throat,” says Otter.  
“I mean I was holding onto the bear itself, yeah because I want to hold it with me; 
I didn’t want it to go after my daughter. . . ”

Then the bear bit Otter’s head, removing his SCALP!

After a five-minute battle, bitten and broken, Otter finally played DEAD.  He hoped his daughter had time to find a safe place to hide. -Reacting instinctively- the bear 
was trying to protect her cubs.  Otter, also -Responding instinctively- protected his daughter.

“The main thing going through my mind at that point is like, ‘don’t get to my daughter, just stay with me.”

Briefly, the grizzly turned her attention to Jenna.  The grizzly bit her in the cheek and on the left shoulder, but Jenna played dead and the bear eventually left. Discovered by other hikers, Otter was airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle .  He was found to have seven broken vertebrae in his neck and back, three broken ribs, numerous puncture wounds, his scalp torn off at the bone, and his right eye socket crushed. Though battered and broken right now, Otter expects a full recovery.  He figures the only thing that matters is that his daughter is okay and ready to start her first year of college.

Consider. . . A Father’s Instinct.  It is a loving father’s instinct to protect his children at all costs, even if it means giving his life!

YOU and I are under constant attack by a fierce predator: SATAN (1 Peter 5:8).  Satan seeks to DESTROY us by using our own weaknesses against us, tempting 
us to sin (James 1:14-15). But it is in the Heavenly Father’s nature to LOVE us and to seek to SAVE us. “Instinctually” He has responded to OUR critical situation by sending His Son to give His life so that we might be saved (John 3:16-17; 1John 4:9-10).

He will save us IF we will: place our faith in Jesus (Acts 16:30-31), repent of our sins (Acts 17:30-31), confess Jesus before men (Romans 10:9-10), and be baptized (immersed) in the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins (Acts 2:38).  And, 
He will CONTINUE to keep us safe as long as we CONTINUE to follow Him (1 John 1:7).

It’s a loving Father’s instinct to SAVE.  Will YOU accept His offer?

God bless you!

David A. Sargent, Minister 

Church of Christ at Creekwood 
1901 Schillinger Rd. S.
Mobile, Alabama  36695

* Information based upon report by Tracy Vedder, http://www.komotv.com/news/printstory.asp?id=39090

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