God and the Geese - Part II

Recently a mass forward called "God and the Geese" has been doing the rounds (see "Part I" below), which offers an interesting analogy of a Christian belief. However, feeling that something was lacking in the story, I wrote a "Part II" to it as follows:

The geese stayed in the warm, dry barn until Winter had passed, and the farmer (for that is what he was) fed them and cared for their every need. When they finally took flight, he shouted after them, "I will be waiting here for you next Winter!" but then chuckled to himself, saying "as if they could understand my words!"

But the geese did not forget the farmer, his goose and the barn, which grew more wonderful in their minds every time they remembered them. And when the goslings hatched, their parents told them marvelous stories about the 'Glorious Gander' and his 'Heavenly Haven'. The young ones yearned to see such wonders for themselves, and were assured that come Winter, they too might find them.

And sure enough, that Winter the now-grown goslings got stranded in a snow storm and lost their way in the dark. And once again the farmer opened the barn doors and took out his goose to show the gaggle the way in. But this time, the goslings were not as easily convinced as the others had been.

"How can this shabby old barn be the 'Heavenly Haven' of our bedtime stories? --they asked each other-- "And how can this scruffy little graylag be the 'Glorious Gander' our parents spoke of so reverently? This is a just trick to deceive us and lead us further astray, or maybe even to trap and devour us!"

And so some of them started to beat upon the goose with their wings, whereupon he insisted that he was the same one that had led their parents to safety, and was there to save them, too. However, this only infuriated them further, and they scratched at him with their feet and picked at him with their bills until he bled.

Seeing his self-sacrifice, some of the gaggle realized that what he had said was true, that he had indeed guided them out of the storm, and that they didn't need a wondrous palace in order to survive the Winter, but that the barn was just right for them. The others tried in vain to convince them otherwise, and then left in disgust, flew out into the stormy night, and perished.

The geese that had stayed flew back home that Spring to nest and teach their goslings all about the 'Glorious Gander' and his 'Heavenly Haven'. And so the story repeated itself. Winter after Winter, the farmer's goose led the gaggle into the barn. Year after year, some of the geese turned against him and were lost in the storm, while the rest remained snug and safe in the barn.

The farmer wondered about this strange behavior. What could cause these geese to act so foolishly against their own wellbeing? Then he realized that it was more important for them to feel secure in the belief that what they thought they knew was true, than to find out what was really happening and be truly safe. Suddenly it dawned upon him that this was what had been dividing the followers of the different world religions.

In every new age, when humanity had lost its way, God had sent a Messenger to guide humankind to safety, and every time, the followers of the former Messengers had persecuted the new ones. To this very day, the devotees of these different Messengers of God were fighting amongst themselves over which had been true and which had been false.

The farmer once again fell to his knees and prayed, this time asking God to teach him to love all of His Messengers and learn from their teachings, to help him spread this new realization of the oneness of God and of his Messengers and thereby bring conciliation and peace among their followers, and most of all to help him find and recognize His new Messenger for this age, regardless of his outward appearance or the conditions of his 'barn', and to arise and follow him with all his heart.

"For other geese have I that are not of this gaggle. Them too must I bring, and they will hear my call. And there will be one skein, and one gander." (John 10:16)

God and the Geese – Part I

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 t hey 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!'

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him; and He will direct your path." (Proverbs 3:5-6)