A Fearful Reaction

         Like a living mountain, over 100,000 snow geese rise in great fear above a partially frozen lake. Their bodies swirl above and generate a sound similar to an airplane heading down a runway. In the midst of the roar the geese honk and honk. They do not wish to end up being somebody else’s lunch. They traveled here, to Loess Bluffs National Wildlife Refuge in northwestern Missouri, to eat, not to be eaten.

           Loess Bluffs acts as a stopover for the birds on their migration south from the northern United States and Canada. Over 200,000 roost at the refuge and spend much of the day feeding in local fields to build up their fat reserves for their continued migration south. When they are not feeding, the snow geese return to the open water of the refuge to rest. A few thousand Canada geese join them, as well as a 100,000 mallards, swans and other ducks, and—much to their dismay—200 to 300 bald eagles also join them.

The Power of Presence

           The snow geese react in fear to the regal masters of the sky. The flight of just one eagle or even its slightest movement will often push a massive swarm of geese into the blue above.

            Now that is power of presence! My words and photographs fail to give testimony to this astounding event. After watching such a phenomenon I thought, Is this not how we ought to react to God? When He moves, shouldn’t we move?

            Oddly enough, most of these geese do not need to fear the predatory raptors. The eagles take to the sky to look for dead or wounded geese. The healthy geese get excited over nothing and often collide in the huge swarm. The birds get placed on the eagles’ menu only after they react and collide. In sharp contrast, I noticed that the Canada geese and mallards hardly react to the eagles.

Fear Not

            I cannot help but examine myself and wonder how I overreact to the eagles in my life. Sometimes the slightest problem comes along, and I look at the worse possible outcome. You know, it is the outcome that never happens. How much better would all of our lives be if we viewed each problem with faith and trust in our ever-present God? I guess we would spend a whole lot less time flying around in circles.

In the Bible

One of the most common phrases in the Bible is “fear not” or “do not be afraid”

We are told trust God. Here is a post with 20 trust verses

We are not to have a spirit of fear or timidity.