The Lonely Goose

This spring and summer our pond was full of Canadian Geese.  We even had a gaggle of babies.  It is turning to fall now, and they are heading south.  All that is...except one.  We have one goose left.  Unable to fly due to an injured wing. 

The other day, as I drove down the driveway, my heart was sad for this lonely goose; sad that it could not join the others; sad that it could not fly the way it was meant to.  Can you imagine being created to fly and stuck on the ground?  I can...

I know what it is like to be unable to do what I was created to do.  I was born a woman, created to bear children, but have been unable to do so.  As devastating a feeling as that was, in that moment, gazing at our lone goose, it was not myself who came to mind, but God.

It was Jesus' words in Matthew 23:37 that came to mind, "“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing."  Oh how it must grieve God to watch us go on making mud pies in the slums when infinite joy has been offered us!

We are not living as we were meant to.  We were created for Eden.  We were created to live in the joy of God's presence. We were created to soar!  

Do you not know?
    Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
    the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
    and his understanding no one can fathom.
²⁹ He gives strength to the weary
    and increases the power of the weak.
³⁰ Even youths grow tired and weary,
    and young men stumble and fall;
³¹ but those who hope in the Lord
    will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
    they will run and not grow weary,
    they will walk and not be faint.

Isaiah 40:28-31

As long as it is called "Today", let us not be deceived by sin's deceitfulness, and turn away from the living God. (Hebrews 3:12-13)  By the power of the Holy Spirit we CAN be transformed, day by day, into the children of God we were meant to be.  "Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings.. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful." (Hebrews 10:22-23)