Geese on the Farm

Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,

are heading home again.

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,

the world offers itself to your imagination,

calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting -

over and over announcing your place

in the family of things. Mary Oliver

Construction is underway on the Pavilion. It will be the heart of Sister Grove Farm’s settlement area. It is where we will all gather to cook and eat together; where we will share what the farm is teaching us, and where we will join in God’s delight at the beloved community created in this space.

Last week, just prior to Trinity Sunday, a weather vane of three wild geese was installed on the roof. While people of all faiths (and none) are welcome here, there is a subtle yet meaningful Christian symbolism which these geese offer and we find meaningful.

First, the wild goose is a Celtic Christian symbol for the Holy Spirit. While the dove, another perhaps more familiar metaphor, comes to us where we are and hovers comfortingly -- the goose is always out in front (or behind – sometimes it’s hard to predict) calling us into new and unexpected encounters.

For us, our calling has included buying a farm in north Texas! While we didn’t see that coming, we have been continually assured that it was the right decision. We have felt the Holy Spirit at play.

Like God’s Spirit, the goose is wild and free. She is impossible to pin down and cannot be contained within our categories or controlled by our political persuasions. “Don’t fence me in” could be her motto.

The other Christian symbolism that we see this weather vane pointing to is the Trinity – the three different persons of God as Creator, God as Christ, and God as Holy Spirit. The early church considered these persons (this blessed Trinity) to be engaged in an eternal and beautiful dance. In this dance there is a mutuality of love and a co-mingling of the persons of God without the loss of distinctive attributes of each person.

This is difficult sometimes for our western intellectual minds to grasp but really, if God could be grasped, God would not be God. So, we attempt to describe that which cannot be described - God as Creator, as both Mother of us all and Father – God as the Christ, the Redeemer, the Liberator – and perhaps the most mysterious of all, God as the Holy Spirit, also referred to as Sustainer or Advocate.

This triune God is always on the move, blowing where God chooses, like the wind. We are not always aware of them but we do feel their breath.

And now the Farm has something to help remind all who live and visit here of “(y)our place in the family of things.”

Amen / Honk Honk!

Sarah Macias