By Ralphine Major

“Bring your camera!” he shouted.  “There’s a bear out here!”

“A bear?” I questioned.  This was the first-ever sighting of a bear at our place, though it is highly possible bears have been in our area before.  But we have never seen one.

Our schedule had changed that day.  We were expecting a package to be delivered and had arrived home earlier than usual.  While watching to see if the package would be delivered, my brother spotted the bear.  We stayed safely distanced from the bear and used the camera’s zoom feature to get a close-up picture.  The black bear did not appear aggressive.  It walked slowly all the way down the length of our yard and never stopped.  Finally, it wandered off our property into the road and out of sight.  Later, other people in the community shared videos and still photos they had captured of the bear.  In years past, there have been reports of bears seen in South Knoxville, Powell, and other surrounding areas.  This one time, we saw a bear in Corryton!  We have not seen the bear since.  It must have heard the Smoky Mountains calling from a distance!

Words of Faith: “And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.” 1 John 5:11 (KJV).