“IF WE HAVE AS MUCH SENSE AS GEESE”

Hugo McCord

A goose is

any of a group of long-necked, web-footed, wild or domestic birds that are like ducks but larger; especially a female of this group; distinguished from gander (Webster), named for its wide bill or beak.

Twice, in a short article, Ann Landers tells how we humans would behave “If we have as much sense as geese.” She lists five facts “What We Can Learn From Geese” (THE OREGONIAN, 8-1-98):

Fact No. 1

As each bird flaps its wings, it creates an uplift draft for the bird following. By flying in a “V” formation, the whole flock adds a greater flying range than if one bird flew alone.

The lesson: People who share a common direction and sense of community can get where they’re going quicker and more easily because they are traveling on the strength of one another.

If you change Ann’s word “People” to “Christians,” she is preaching New Testament doctrine, for Christians “share a common direction,” knowing they are going to the heavenly home, “an imperishable and unstained and never-fading inheritance (1 Peter 1:4).

Moreover, they have a “sense of community,” a realization that they are “members of one another” (Romans 12:5), enjoying a loving “fellowship” beginning the “day” of their baptism (Acts 2:41-42). Consequently, they “encourage one another, and build each other up” (1 Thessalonians 5:11).

Fact No. 2

Whenever a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of trying to fly alone and quickly gets back into formation to take advantage of the lifting power of the bird immediately in front.

The lesson: If we have as much sense as geese, we will stay in formation and be willing to accept help when we need it and give help when it is needed.

Ann’s words, “stay in formation,” come from the military. She used the positive meaning of orderliness, while Paul used the negative ataktos, “properly of soldiers marching out of order or quitting the ranks” (2 Thessalonians 3:6, Thayer), and so “not at one’s post, truant, irregular.”

Christians’ staying “in formation” includes placing membership with a local congregation (Acts 9:26-27), obeying the “leaders” (Hebrews 13:17), the “elders” (1 Timothy 5:17), being “submissive” (Hebrews 13:17), not “walking disorderly” (2 Thessalonians 3:6).

Ann’s advice that we should “be willing to accept help when we need it” was followed by Paul, after expense money had been sent to him by the Philippian Christians, as he wrote a “thank-you” note:

I have rejoiced greatly in the Lord, that now at last you have revived your concern for me, for though you indeed were concerned, you had no opportunity (Philippians 4:10).

And Ann’s advice that we should be willing to “give help when it is needed” was taught by Paul as he exhorted the Ephesian elders to “remember the words of the Lord Jesus, who said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive’“ (Acts 20:35).

Fact No. 3

When the lead goose gets tired, it rotates back into the formation, and another goose flies in the point position.

The lesson: Geese instinctively share the task of leadership and do not resent the leader.

Though geese “instinctively share the task of leadership,” Christians, not by instinct, but by teaching, assume leadership in a moment’s notice when somebody is in need, as good Samaritans (Luke 10:29-37), and they keep themselves “ready for every good work” (Titus 3:1).

However, Christians, differing from geese, do not have one leader, one pastor, but a plurality of pastors (elders “in every congregation” (Acts 14:23; Ephesians 4:11; 1 Peter 5:1-5). And Christians, far from resenting their leaders, appreciate them and “esteem them very highly in love because of their work” and maintain “peace among” themselves (1 Thessalonians 5:13).

Fact No. 4

The geese in formation honk from behind to encourage those up front to keep up their speed.

The lesson: We need to make sure our honking from behind is encouraging and not something else.

However, Christians do not “honk,” but God wants them to speak up to “encourage one another and build each other up” (1 Thessalonians 5:11, NIV). “Therefore, encourage each other with these words” (1 Thessalonians 4:18, HIV). “A fitting reply is a joy, and a word at the right time, how good! (Proverbs 15:23). “Like apples of gold in a network of silver, so are fitting words at the right time” (Proverbs 25:11).

Fact No. 5

When a goose gets sick, is wounded or is shot down, two geese drop out of formation and follow it down to earth to help and protect it. They stay with their disabled companion until it is able to fly again or dies. They then launch out on their own or with another formation or catch up with the flock.

The lesson: If we have as much sense as geese, we, too, will stand by one another in difficult times and help the one who has dropped out regain his place in the formation.

Ann gives the same lesson as did Paul: “Brothers, if a man be overtaken in a fault, you who are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of gentleness, watching yourselves, lest you also be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so you will fulfill Christ’s law” (Galatians 6:1-2).

Fact No. 6

Fact No. 6 should also be presented. The practical, sensible, and unselfish qualities of geese are not accidental. Certainly they are by instinct (an “inborn tendency to behave in a way characteristic of a species,” Webster), but what caused the physical chemicals making up the body of a goose to have an “inborn tendency” to (1) have a “sense of community” with other geese, and (2) to stay in formation, and (3) to share leadership and (4) to “honk from behind to encourage those up front, and (5) to “stand by one another in difficult times”?

It is not complimentary to a man of science to say that instinct originated by accident, along with life itself, in a primordial stagnant pool of water, and eventually evolved into to a goose and a gander.

The probability of life originating by accident is comparable to the unabridged dictionary resulting from an explosion in a printing shop (Prof. Edwin Conklin, Princeton University, cited in FIRM FOUNDATION, March, 1998).

The “big bang” guess, giving us this beautiful and orderly universe, somebody said, is as likely as “a tornado going through a junkyard” and making “a Boeing 747.”

One has to agree with David, “Fools say in their hearts, ‘There is no god’“ (Psalm 14:1; 53:1).