"Lost As a Goose"

 

 

Our daughter in law hopes to write a book of collections of phrases and their meanings. I observed one in action this week: “Lost as a goose.”

From my kitchen window I caught a glimpse of something odd. I called Dan to have a look as well. There it was – a goose (guinea) in the back yard. It was running frantically back and forth along the back fence. The poor thing, obviously panic driven, clucked wildly stopping only briefly to peck at the fence trying to force a way out.


Neither of us had ever seen this type of creature around the neighborhood. We guessed it had followed the creek and entered through the gates we had opened earlier in the day. I re-opened both gates and attempted to guide it out. This just seemed to panic it further.



I decided to let it be. I left the gates open and went back inside. A short while later, the yard was quiet again. There was no more sign of the lost goose. We hope we are correctly assuming it found its way safely home.



Actually it is a Southern phrase, “Lost as a goose in a snow storm.” Obviously a white goose in a white bank of snow would virtually be invisible. This creature was anything but. It was not lost but in its panic driven mania had only lost all sense of direction or common sense.



Often I too find myself lost as a goose--desperately trying but failing miserably under my own power. Whatever the situation instead of trusting God I panic and lose sight of His direction. When I finally come to the end of myself, I realize the way out was always clear and unobstructed.



The LORD your God, who is going before you, will fight for you, as he did for you in Egypt, before your very eyes, and in the desert. There you saw how the LORD your God carried you, as a father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place." In spite of this, you did not trust in the LORD your God, who went ahead of you on your journey, in fire by night and in a cloud by day, to search out places for you to camp and to show you the way you should go. Deuteronomy 1:30-33