Geese

MOM watched a show that talked about the ducks at the Peabody Hotel.  Do you know what those crazy ducks do?  They ride in an elevator from the roof to the lobby.  Then they march in single file, one after the other, in perfect step, imitating the duck in front of it exactly.  Ducks, for whatever reason, have been symbols of order and repetitive sameness throughout history.  So many go through life emulating the lockstep sameness, the one-beat rhythm, that those Peabody ducks perform as a daily sideshow?

Today I went for a romp with Bert and Trigger with their humans to find more of those Morel Mushrooms.  Along the way I saw some ducks and some geese and it made me think about the Peabody ducks.

I love the tall stuff

One has only to step into one's backyard to realize that sameness or monotony is not the blueprint of divine creation. Diversity of form, color, size, shape, function, status and essence, is how God has fashioned creation.

Just because creation doesn't live and move in lockstep precision does not mean that chaos reigns. We are only just beginning to hear the loudest and most persistent of the unifying rhythms that keep the symphony of creation moving according to a variety of tempos.  Just like me and my friends.  

 Bert even makes his own rainbows

Where Bert LOVES the water, and I would prefer to just get my feet wet chewing on a stick, and Trigger prefers to be somewhere in-between. God's creations may be myriad and multi-formed. But there is one Spirit that keeps all attuned to a common divine cadence.  Which is like when my friends and I run through the woods to our next destination.

Jesus didn't and doesn't want "ducks". Jesus wants "geese". When geese are on the move they fly in the familiar "V" formation. Yet even though they fly in rhythm, they do not move strictly in step. Each bird seeks out the best alignment for drafting behind its immediate predecessor.  Often the "V" is longer on one side and it can even break off to form 2 "v's".

Geese fly in formation, but a formation that is always changing and adjusting.  They travel together not in step but rather in sync (like me and my friends), sharing an internal and external rhythm that guides their journey but never wholly dictates their next move.

Trigger looking for the perfect rock

Love as God intends us to experience it and express it, is not contained and controlled by style or circumstance. Love as God intends defies convention and safety – giving us the courage even to lay down our life for those we love.

Not only does Bert have webbed feet, he apparently can breath water

Geese fly in rhythm, but not in unison. Abiding in – the sacramental lay-down love Christ has offered to all his disciples frees us from the dreary, duck-like sameness we can so easily imitate.

Hello Mr. Stick.  Be prepared to be chewed

Yummm Yummm 

So my friends, don't follow blindly along, step by step.  Be your beautiful self while flying in rhythm like the geese.  That's what Jesus did.  Yep.  When he choose his disciples way back when he broke with the lockstep pattern traditional student/teacher relationship which expected their students to be ducks.  Jesus' relationship with his disciples may have been out of step with the culture, but it was perfectly in-sync with the true rhythm of God's creation and love.

Blessings,

Goose