I’ve been watching a documentary on a man following migrating geese in the Northern Hemisphere, and what a fascinating watch it has been! It reminded me of the parables that our Lord told His disciples, taking things they could see and drawing lessons from them illustrating the truths of God to them.
The man in our story determined that these geese would know him as their parent, and he watched over the eggs every day, talking to them as they developed. Isn’t that just like our Father in Heaven watching His creatures on earth right from conception? The Psalmist in the Bible says….I was cast upon Thee from the womb: Thou art my God from my mother’s belly (Psalm 22:10) Some of us have needed to be called many times before we realised this, while others have had the desire for the things of God right from a very early age. Whichever way it happened, God has had His hand on us right from the time we were born, and He will never let us go.
When these chickens eventually hatched, the man was there with them as they came out into their new environment. Like many newborn creatures, they identified with the first moving thing they were aware of, and in this case it was the man who had watched over them so faithfully.
As he walked along the paddock, the baby geese followed him, and in time they began to fly. As they did this, he took to the air beside them in his microlight plane. Where he went, they followed, and every night he brought them back to the safety of the pen. As he fed them, he would chatter away to them in their language as near as he could follow it.
There were eight of these young geese that were hatched out together, and at last the instinct began to burn within them to fly to a warmer climate for the winter. There were many dangers on the way, and the young geese had to learn which things to keep away from. Sometimes they took notice of the man in his microlight beside them, while other times they had to learn from their own mistakes. How like this we are! If we would only take heed to what God tells us in His Word, what a lot of trouble we would save ourselves! Again, the Bible says, How shall a young person cleanse his ways? By taking heed to Thy Word. and, Your Word I have hidden in my heart so I will not sin against You (Psalm 119: 9, 11).
One of these dangers was a wind farm which tended to break up the flight path of these migrating geese, but as they began to separate, the man called out to them and they regrouped in formation following his microlight.
One evening, they could see a golf course below them and what a delightful place it seemed. All that green grass and blue ponds called to them, but there were hidden dangers there too, in the balls that came flying at them from those smooth looking greens. This reminds us of how what looks inviting and tempting can sometimes lead to disaster. Our birds were fortunate in that none of those flying balls hit them, or interfered with their journey. Unfortunately, we don’t always get off as freely as our birds. Sometimes we suffer the consequences of our own behaviour, and other times God steps in with an accident or some other way to bring us up with a round turn. What sometimes seems a total disaster, God can turn into good….Joseph could tell his brothers that what they meant for evil to him, God turned it into good for all of them (Genesis 50:20) and Paul tells us in the New Testament that ALL things work together for good to those who love Him (Romans 8:28)
But this was not the end of the journey for our birds, and once again they all took to the air. The man knew what lay in store for them, and he knew what the end would be….they would have to leave these lush looking grounds and go it alone into the wide blue sky without him at their side. But they were not totally alone….even though the man could not go the rest of the way with them, a flock of migrating geese from elsewhere caught up with them, and our birds joined in with them and they were able to put into practice what the man had taught them up to this point.
This is where our parable changes. As we go towards our heavenly goal, we do not have to fear being left alone at the end of our journey….it is not a crowd of heavenly beings that join with us, but our Lord Himself who takes us to Himself, even through death….He will never leave us. We only need to hang onto the words of Psalm 23 to have this assurance….even in the Valley of the Shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me, Your rod and Your staff comfort me.
Let’s see that we each one do this, for it is the only way of no fear in our life journey right through to the end.
