We have quite a few man made ponds and lakes around Covington; all at one time or another serving as aquatic layovers for the flocks. So like I said, I don't pay much attention to them, they come and go as they please never seeming to make one place a permanent residence.
One pond in particular is in front of the Ochsner clinic just down the street from our house. They've had their share of feathery visitors. About a month ago, driving by, I noticed there was one by himself, which was odd considering the very stong flock relationship of geese. I know that sounds very scientific, but all I meant to say, was you never see just one goose. Anyway, I thought it was odd, or maybe he was just playing the rebellious teenager role and doing his own thing while his family was a short distance away, out of sight. However, when I came around and saw his left side, he had an obvious injury to his wing. About a dozen of the large wing feathers were tattered and pointing out from his body. Probably the victim of a loose dog if I had to guess.
It wasn't the injury that struck me but the fact that it seemed more likely that he was in fact alone. He most likely was not able to fly and was left behind. I thought that was a little sad, thought about the dog coming back to finish the job, thought about someone calling wildlife and fisheries to come and rehabiltate him. I even thought about calling myself, but never got around to it. I thought maybe it would heal on it's own and his feather would realign and he'd find his family. Aided by some sixth sense, guiding him down the planets longitudes. The faint, unique smell of his flock carried on the jetstream, guiding him to yet another small pond in the suburbs of Mexico City. But day after day, there he was, wandering alone around the pond.
Then, one day on my usual commute into town, I saw my new friend with a new friend of his own. A duck that looked like he might have some empathy to what my goose friend was going through. Some displaced feathers and also alone. I really didn't think much of the new company he had, hybrid ducks of this kind are not rare. Day after day, week after week, these two were had become a seemingly inseparable pair. Never did I see one without the other, and never more than just a couple feet apart from each other. I brought Jessica by to show her and she named the duck Oscar and I named the goose Earl.
I started to really think about these birds. What might have happened if I'd had gotten this goose some help and allowed him to return to the sky and fall back in line with the flock? I know it seems like I'm over dramatizing a duck and goose relationship, but it serves as a great illustration.
We go through trials and battles, sometimes we come out injured; not quite the same. God has every ability to take us up, repair us and put us back in line where we were before. It's easy to say that's what we'd like while in the midst of it, but what about the experience and opportunities that we gain by going through these trials and the different person we come out to be on the other side. Equate the relationship that Oscar and Earl have created with a relationship that you've gotten through a difficult season.
Both Jessica and I have shared the feelings with each other, that when the relationship we had prior to each other ended, we thought that was the end of our world. We were torn and beaten up emotionally and felt that everything that we thought was right, was suddenly wrong. Then we laugh, but not in a disrepectful way to those who hurt us, but in a way we're laughing at ourselves. How uninformed we were. How clueless we were to the blessing that we were to receive someday in place of this hurt. We found each other and a marriage rooted in the foundation of our Christian beliefs and never in our wildest dreams did we imagine something so complete.
See, one of the biggest problems with the human mind is, by our nature, we assume that only the things we can imagine, or even have experienced, are the only things that exist. Thats the foundation of faith, believing in something you've never seen with your eyes. As you grow in Christ, you learn more about having faith in Him, and the more he will provide blessings that you could never have imagined. We have to get out of our own way and let God prove His plan.
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