God speaks through a flock of geese

I was standing in my favorite book store the other day when my eye caught sight of a little flock of geese out over the trees. Wow, they’re just heading south now, I thought. It’s the end of January!

Certainly this prolonged season of warm currents and bizarre shifts in temperature must be confusing to them. Why, tulip buds are showing in my gardens! I’ve never seen anything like it in New England.

I watched them silently crossing the Southern sky. Straining my ears, I wondered if I could hear their trumpet calls, but they were too far away. Besides, I was behind a huge plate of glass. I started counting them and it suddenly hit me. These were MY GEESE from Beaver Pond! These are the same little flock I’ve watched on many occasions from my favorite sandy knoll. Goodbye my old friends! Safe journeys! I whispered.

But wait, something’s strange. I noticed that their usual vee formation was out of order. The leader was behind the rest of the flock and the vee was actually upside down and backwards! I’ve never seen that before either. As they distanced themselves further away to the right of my window pane view, they never altered that backwards stance. The whole vee was inverted!

I was amazed. Even nature gets confused I thought. Sure, they were going south. They were all in flight, they were all moving, even heading the right direction. BUT the norm was bent, everyone was strangely out of sync. I’ve never seen that before.

Wow. That's exactly how I feel right now. Me and my family are trying to move on but our leader is behind us now. He is out of sight and we’re trying to function without him. We don’t have the benefit of the current and thrust from his wings. We don’t feel the strength of his presence. He is gone from our view. So much of life seems backwards to me now.

He is fading into the background. Removed from sight. I'm having to learn a whole new way of have to flying. I'm flying solo now.

As with most images that God gives me, a double meaning emerged. It caught me like those southerly currents and took me a little farther along in my own journey. Not only for a widow like me, but this is exactly what happened with the church when Jesus returned to his heavenly throne. His disciples felt lost. How confusing life can be when things don’t go as we expected.

You can just imagine the sleepless nights, the tossing and turning, and the endless arguments they had trying to decipher the facts and reorganize their little frat house there in the upper room.

Come on Lord! A leader isn’t supposed to disappear from view! We need you right here where we can see you. How can a group of disciples carry on without someone to follow? Isn’t that what you said when you called us? You said, “Follow me.” Well, we’re trying, but we never knew you were going to go straight to the cross of Calvary! Where does that leave us?

The One they pinned all their hopes upon had been beaten before their eyes. They had to endure the pain of watching him suffer to the bitter end. They had to live through the horror of seeing him die.

Boy, I can relate to that confusion.

The Savior isn’t visible to us now either. As a church, the real flock of God, we also have to fly by faith and ride these winds through the whole winter season. We have to band together and support each other in the long and arduous journey. Even if the season is prolonged and bitter, or harder to understand than we ever expected.

We have to believe he is flying with us to the very end.


We have to listen a little harder now. Maybe we have to strain our ears. We only 'see darkly as through a glass' right now. But someday we will arrive at the end of our long flight and we will be with him! Hang on, dear flock. This season shall pass and it will be worth it all.

Until that day, dear God, be the wind beneath our wings. Increase our strength and ability to endure even when it hurts, when we can’t see you, and when we feel alone. Amen.

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"I am with you always, even to the very end of the age."-- Jesus

(as recorded in the last words of Matthew)

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