Light in the Window - June 23, 2022

Wild Geese walking at sunrise at Huntington Beach.

Photo Credit- Tom MacMillan

Dear Covenant Family,

I love watching wild geese fly in a V formation over Lake Erie. I’m told they take turns in the lead and that each bird flapping its wings creates an uplift for the bird behind it, so the whole wedge can fly faster and longer. When one flies out of formation, the resistance from the wind is so strong that the bird gets back in quickly. Often you hear honking from the geese behind to encourage those in front to keep up speed. And when a wild goose becomes sick, wounded or shot down, a few others follow it to offer protection until it recovers or dies, then the birds get into a new formation and keep going in the same direction.

For the Celtic Christians – those Christians in Brittany, Wales, Ireland, and the Scottish Highlands – the wild goose became a symbol of the Holy Spirit much more than the dove. Sometimes God’s Spirit hovers comfortingly like a dove. But other times the Spirit seems to lift and carry us in unexpected directions, and we find ourselves caught up in a beloved community, quite unaware how we arrived or where we should take our place in the formation. I want our church to be a place where people take turns in the lead, uplift those who come after us, protect one another when we fall away, and keep honking encouragement!

I think the Holy Spirit, like a wild goose, surprises us and disturbs our plans, often making us change direction. Have you ever had to stop your car because there is a wild goose family crossing the road? When I lived in historic New Castle, Delaware, I walked or ran the path by the river every day and it was usually occupied by a gaggle of geese. Sometimes they honked in warning and wouldn’t let me stay on the path, sometimes they swooped down unexpectedly for a landing. There are so many images of God’s Spirit- wind, shining sun, mother eagle, bright cloud, kind fire, love of friends, mother, father, friend, lover…and wild geese.

Peace,

Pastor Jessie

jmacmillan@covenantweb.org

Wild Geese, by Mary Oliver

You do not have to be good.

You do not have to walk on your knees

for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.

You only have to let the soft animal of your body

love what it loves.

Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.

Meanwhile the world goes on.

Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain

are moving across the landscapes,

over the prairies and the deep trees,

the mountains and the rivers.

Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,

are heading home again.

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,

the world offers itself to your imagination,

calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting -

over and over announcing your place

in the family of things.

Church of the Covenant | Website