You Get What You Neede

I ad driven a long way and when I reached my destination, I pulled into the parking lot and sat there listening to the radio. I looked at the mileage meter on the dashboard and noted that I had covered almost five hundred miles. The music played softly on the radio, a country western song about love and loss. I heard an unfamiliar sound and it came from a distance but was getting louder and nearer. I looked out the window, and then looked up and I saw them. Hundreds of geese, flying in V formations. There was wave after wave of them, and as I watched, a large portion of the sky was gradually filled with one large and moving V after another. The sound I heard was the honking of the geese as they flew from one corner of the other, emerging from one corner of the sky and fading into another. The formations rose and fell slightly as the geese deftly rode the winds. I noticed how a every so often the lead goose would recede a bit and make way for a new formation leader.
Watching them, I wondered how long they are able to stay up there before coming down for a breather, for some water and food. Their energy astounded me. I am quite sure that they cover a great distance. I could not estimate the expanse “up there” that I could see from below, but even that span of sky was of a considerable distance, easily much more than a mile. And as the geese became tinier and tinier as they vanished from sight, they showed no inclination to head back down for a rest.
I tried to imagine myself running a much shorter distance, say from one end of parking lot to another, and wondered if I could do it. I did not try but did not have to do so to know that it would nearly kill me. I just do not have the strength or the wind for that at my age. So it fascinated me that those birds could flap those big wings at a rather rapid pace and not even take time to rest. Those birds were sure of their destination and the Creator had given them all that they need to get there. For they were equipped with wings perfectly made for high and direct flight. Feathers and a tail to give a lightness to their bodies and a living rudder with which to sail and navigate the winds. A sense of radar that is nothing short of uncanny. And a pair of eyes to match, eyes that maybe do not even blink in a direct confrontation with some pretty strong winds. Geese need no weight management seminars. They eat just enough to live and just enough to guarantee a lift-off to the sky. All without flight training seminars.
I have asked around but no one I know seems to know how long geese can stay up there. By now maybe they have reached their destination. I hope so.
What of us humans? If geese know how to get from one place to another and are equipped with all they need to get there, what of our journey here below? We can do amazing things – even take to the skies and build radars and go on needed diets. But in all our travels and amidst all our technological marvels, we lose our way and more often than we would care to admit, we cannot get off the ground.
Maybe God made us for an interior journey to get home to him or her in this life. We do not have wings but we all have hearts, and the human heart knows how to soar and cover a lot of ground. A forgiving and compassionate heart can cover vast distances. We have a kind of seeing that can see clearly, despite however strong the winds against us may be.
And we know that we cannot get anywhere alone. We were born for a made for each other. Our formations may not take the shape of a V. Our formations are based on patterns of love and respect. They are formations that keep us all grounded, but moving in the right and only direction that will eventually get us home to where we once came from.