Jesus and the snow geese

There once was a man who didn't believe in God. And he didn't hesitate to let others know how he felt about faith and religious holidays, like Christmas. His wife, however, did believe. And despite his disparaging comments, she raised their children to also have faith in God and His Son, Jesus.

One snowy December 24th, his wife was taking their children to a Christmas Eve service at the small community church. She asked him to come, but he refused. "That story is nonsense!" he said. "If there is a God, why would He lower Himself and come to Earth as a man? That's ridiculous!" So she and the children left while he stayed home.

A bit later, the winds grew stronger and the snow turned into a blizzard. As the man looked out the window, all he saw was white - a blinding snowstorm. He sat down to relax before the fire for the evening when he heard a loud thump. Something had hit the window. Then another thump and another. He looked out again, but still couldn't see more than a few feet. When the snow let up a little, he ventured outside to see what could have been beating on his window. In the field near his house, he saw a flock of wild snow geese.

Apparently they had been flying south for the winter when they got caught in the snowstorm and couldn't go on. They were lost and stranded on his farm, with no food or shelter. They just flapped their wings and flew around the field in low circles blindly and aimlessly. A few of them had flown into his window, it seemed. The man felt sorry for these poor, beautiful creatures and wanted to help them. The barn would be a great place for them to stay, he thought. It is warm and safe; surely they could spend the night and wait out the storm.

He walked over to the barn and opened the doors wide, then watched and waited, hoping they would notice the open barn and go inside. But the geese just fluttered around aimlessly and did not seem to notice the barn or realize what it could mean for them. The man tried to get their attention, but that just seemed to scare them and they moved further away. He went into the house and came back out with some bread, broke it up, and made a trail of crumbs leading to the barn. They still didn't catch on.

Now he was getting frustrated. He got behind them and tried to shoo them toward the barn, but they only got more scared and scattered in every direction except toward the barn. Nothing he did could get them to enter the only safe and warm place around. "Why don't they follow me?!" he exclaimed. "Can't they see this is the only place where they can survive the storm?" Suddenly it dawned on him that they simply wouldn't follow a human. "If only I were a goose," he thought out loud, "then I could save them." Suddenly he had an idea.

He went into the barn and got one of his own geese. Carrying it in his arms, he circled around behind the flock of wild geese and carefully released it. His goose flew through the flock and straight into the barn. One by one the other geese followed it to safety. He stood silently for a moment as the words he had spoken a few minutes earlier replayed in his mind: "If only I were a goose, then I could save them!"

The prideful words he uttered to his wife just a couple hours ago came back like a punch in the chest. "If there is a God, why would He lower Himself and come to Earth as a man? That's ridiculous!" At that moment, for the very first time, Christmas made sense. We were lost and blind and dying. In the person of Jesus Christ, though, we finally had One to walk among us and show us the way.

As the winds died down and the blinding snow settled to the ground, the man's soul became quiet. He pondered this wonderful thought. Years of doubt and disbelief vanished like the passing storm. He fell to his knees in the snow and whispered his very first prayer: "Thank You, God, for coming in human form to show me the way!"