Birds in Flight

I am lucky enough to have a multipurpose path right in front of my house. It is one of the amenities the state built as consolation for putting a six-lane toll highway in the middle of our neighborhood. The neighborhood is now joined by a conciliatory bridge. Along the path, about three-quarters of a mile from my front door, is a stormwater management pond. In a rainy year, the pond is always full of water —and with Canada geese and ducks. Some days, more than a hundred geese are on the pond, plus a few mallard ducks and the occasional great blue heron. I like to look at the water-loving birds on the pond. As a person fascinated by aviation and flight in general, I am particularly taken by the geese as they leave the water or return. The geese honk constantly.

I imagine they are planning their next foray.

As I watch, the geese start paddling their feet, and in a second or two, their feet are out of the water. Their necks crane upward, and then they are heading for the sky, quickly getting into the well-known V-formation.

As geese return to the pond, they land toward the back of their feet and skid on the water until their necks and the rest of their bodies come down to a level position and they are floating on the water. The first time I observed this, I realized that the birds take off like an airplane, and when they land, they look like the retired Concorde aircraft or the space shuttle. It occurs to me that the people who invented and developed aircraft must have studied birds, including geese, to perfect this method of transportation that we all take for granted today. Humans did not invent flight; God did.

He made the whole world.

And God laid out a plan and gave humans the insight and wisdom to adapt it for our use. Just a bit of observation opens our eyes to the intricacies of nature.

Nature provides us with answers to many problems —from flight to medicines and everything in between.

Nature demonstrates that it was all created by someone who loves us— God.

How can we not recognize the love of an all-powerful God?

Jean Arthur