Cast Your Bread Upon the Waters

I have been enjoying watching the geese this winter. With a pond beyond the iron fence at our back yard, the geese fly over and around our house to land on the water. Although the pond isn't ours, we get the benefits of living near it and watching and hearing what goes on.

This winter has held both the extreme cold needed to freeze the pond and the mild January days of thawing, with many days somewhere in between. Evidently these geese have chosen to stay in Iowa for the winter. I know that isn't unusual. When we were in Rochester, Minnesota one October many years ago I first learned that not all birds go south.

Ankeny builders and land developers often incorporate ponds into neighborhoods. I'd like to know how many of these ponds exist in Ankeny. The number would surprise you and me, I'm sure. Anyway there are a lot of geese who have settled here year around. With Saylorville Lake within a couple of miles I would think they would choose it over the small ponds but we rarely see the geese on Saylorville.

The geese usually fly in shortly after sunrise from all directions and we can watch them circle around and land. I love seeing their big wing-span open wide as they nearly stop in air before gently and gracefully floating down with their webbed feet set for a landing. They are funny to watch as they slide around on the ice. They often look like they are walking on water when they are on the thin ice, just before settling into the water for a float. They move in single line across the pond, or in mass invasion.

When dusk begins to appear in the west, the geese prepare for a complete exodus. Flocks of family members take off together in proper goose formation and fill the sky with their beautiful V's and the honking so recognized as their species. I wonder where they go for the night. Somewhere that offers food, perhaps a farmers field? I do not know but God does.

"Cast your bread upon the waters, for after many days you will find it again. Give portions to seven, yes to eight, for you do not know what disaster may come upon the land. If clouds are full of water, they pour rain upon the earth. Whether a tree falls to the south or to the north, in the place where it falls, there will it lie. Whoever watches the wind will not plant; whoever looks at the clouds will not reap. As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother's womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things. Sow your seed in the morning, and at evening let not your hands be idle, for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that, or whether both will do equally well."

I love these poetic verses from Ecclesiastes 11:1-6 (NIV) written by Solomon. His wisdom tells us to have the same spirit of trust and adventure the geese show, as we face the risks of life as opportunities that God gives. We are to face these challenges on our pathway with faith and enthusiasm, without fear or worry. I view the V's of the geese as a reminder that God is in control, even when we cannot be.

May God bless your day with geese formations in the sky - reminders of the wonderful care and love God gives us.

SDG