FW: God and the Geese
Van Zijl,Theodore,Fss All Pay - Pe.
Port Elizabeth
Fidelity Security Services
Tel: 041 365 7966
Mobile: 084 680 1475
E - Fax: 0866387647
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 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!"
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