Minister’s Column
Recently I stood on the path by the river and saw an amazing sight: geese flying low overhead in formation. First I heard the sound of the geese calling to one another with their honking, then I saw them coming toward me in the classic V-formation. The formation is both fluid and precise, a beautiful choreography. This is what a river would look like flying in the air. The honking is their communication: the birds form and re-form; they take their places in order to conserve energy. Coming down the river, they pass right over my head. I pause a moment. The air is quiet and the winter sky is moving toward nightfall.
Before I can take in what I’ve just seen, looking at the V-flock of geese receding, before I can say something to the stranger beside me on the path, I hear the honking again. Turning my head, I see another formation coming towards me. From the same direction as the first one: flying up the river, straight towards me, passing over my head. The second formation is larger; the third one is smaller. In succession, five formations of geese pass over my head. I watch, I rotate my head upwards, they pass so close overhead that I can hear the sound of the wind in their feathers: a ruffling soft sound. The silence is amazing. I am fully present, alive, aware, connected. Forty or fifty birds have just flown directly over my head.
The geese know just what they are doing. They honk about the direction and about the formation. They form up, they take turns being the leader who works the hardest. Working together is so efficient that a goose can fly 70% farther in formation than it can on its own. Geese flying in a V-formation is majestic, casual, natural. I have a lot to learn from their example.
PRAYER:
God of birds and rivers, God of the sky and of my human heart:
May I find my place and fit into it as gracefully as the goose joining up in the V-formation.
May I communicate with my voice to remind the others in front of and behind me that we are moving together; that we trust the leader; that we can keep each other in the line; that we will let one another know when we have the strength to take the lead and when we must fall back.
May each of us find our flock and be part of the flight.
Rev. Drew Frantz
January 10, 2024