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GOD AND THE
GEESE
There was
once a man who didn't believe in God, and he didn't hesitate to let
others know how he felt about religion and religious holidays.
His wife, however, did believe, and she raised their children to
also have faith in God and Jesus, despite his disparaging comments.
One snowy eve, his wife was taking their children to service in the
farm community in which they lived. They were to talk about Jesus'
birth. She asked him to come, but he refused.
"That story is nonsense!" he said. "Why would God lower Himself to
come to Earth as a man? That's ridiculous!"
So she and the children left, and he stayed home.
A while later, the winds grew stronger and the snow turned into a
blizzard. As the man looked out the window, all he saw was a
blinding snowstorm.
He sat down
to relax before the fire for the evening. Then he heard a loud
thump.
Something had hit the window. He looked out, but couldn't see more
than a few feet. When the snow let up a little, he ventured outside
to see what could have been beating on his window.
In the field near his house he saw a flock of wild geese.
Apparently
they had been flying south for the winter when they got caught in
the snowstorm and couldn't go on. They were lost and stranded on his
farm, with no food or shelter. They just flapped their wings and
flew around the field in low circles, blindly and aimlessly. A
couple of them had flown into his window, it seemed.
The man felt sorry for the geese and wanted to help them. The barn
would be a great place for them to stay, he thought.
It's warm and
safe; surely they could spend the night and wait out the storm. So
he walked over to the barn and opened the doors wide, then watched
and waited, hoping they would notice the open barn and go inside.
But the geese just fluttered around aimlessly and didn't seem to
notice the barn or realize what it could mean for them. The man
tried to get their attention, but that just seemed to scare them,
and they moved further away.
He went into
the house and came with some bread, broke it up, and made a bread
crumb trail leading to the barn. They still didn't catch on.
Now he was getting frustrated. He got behind them and tried to shoo
them toward the barn, but they only got more scared and scattered in
every direction except toward the barn. Nothing he did could get
them to go into the barn where they would be warm and safe. "Why
don't they follow me?!" he exclaimed. "Can't they see this is the
only place where they can survive the storm?"
He thought for a moment and realized that they just wouldn't follow
a human. "If only I were a goose, then I could save them," he said
out loud. Then he had an idea. He went into the barn, got one of his
own geese, and carried it in his arms as he circled around behind
the flock of wild geese.
He then released it. His goose flew through the flock and straight
into the barn -- and one-by-one, the other geese followed it to
safety.
He stood
silently for a moment as the words he had spoken a few minutes
earlier replayed in his mind: "If only I were a goose, then I could
save them!" Then he thought about what he had said to his wife
earlier. "Why would God want to be like us? That's ridiculous!"
Suddenly it all made sense. That is what God had done. We were like
the geese--blind, lost, perishing. God had His Son become like us so
He could show us the way and save us.
As the winds and blinding snow died down, his soul became quiet and
pondered this wonderful thought. Suddenly he understood why Christ
had come. Years of doubt and disbelief vanished with the passing
storm. He fell to his knees in the snow, and prayed his first
prayer:
"Thank You, God, for coming in human form to get me out of the
storm!"
~author unknown~
Courtesy of
Singingman |
