Lessons from Geese?

There are plenty of lessons to be learned from geese. They fly in large flocks and honk to encourage each other during flight. They all take their strength and build energy off of the goose in the front, and when that goose gets tired then it rotates to the back where a new goose takes the frontline. They also never leave one another behind. If a goose gets injured, it will fly out of the pack…but not alone. Two other geese accompany it, and continue to stay with it until it dies or recovers enough to return to a passing flock.

Geese know plenty about unity; it is the key to their survival. The amazing thing is that they do things out of instinct—God-given instinct. It is a valuable thing to see how the Lord made the geese this way so that they were not all trying to fly south on their own. If this were the case, there would be individual geese all over the place. Many too tired to carry on in their flights and not able to make it as far south as needed for winter. Many would die just on the journey, or get lost or confused of how to get where they’re going. The divisiveness would be fatal.

Maybe as the church, we need to get to know better what unity looks like. We work to conform ourselves by the Spirit of God more to the image of Christ every day as we get to glory, but we're still people, and unity does not come as naturally to us. In 1 Corinthians 1: 10-17, Paul says, “10 I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. 11 For it has been reported to me by Chloe's people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. 12 What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.” 13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? 14 I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15 so that no one may say that you were baptized in my name. 16 (I did baptize also the household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.) 17 For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

We've got to ask: with these divisions and differentiations of doctrine and practice among those who follow Christ in the church, has our purpose of sharing Christ been confused and frustrated? Others need to see the unity we can have in Him. We need to visibly align in our formation so that outsiders can see our purpose and direction in Jesus Christ.

Much love,
V