It was an overcast mid-March day: snow in the air, mud and snow intermixed in the warming weather. I was driving home from a business meeting, coping with traffic, potholes and a dirty windshield. My mind was cluttered with ideas, challenges; frustration that more progress hadn’t been made was a recurring annoyance. While sitting at a stop light and feeling the world on my back I happened to glance skyward.

There, high above us all, flew a small wedge of geese, oblivious to our world as they paddled northward through the wind and snow, announcing the coming of Spring. God’s messengers, these. Messengers that the changing of seasons is part of a bigger view of our world, messengers that there is more to life than our petty problems and frustrations, messengers that life has a pattern and we are part of that eternal pattern. The geese were fighting a tough headwind; the V formation floundered while they struggled to stay focused on their mission, but nothing would stay them. Geese flew that route thousands of years ago and will be there thousands of years from now. Our little concerns are so small and temporary.

The rest of my drive home I thought of the geese and their message. My frustrations had dissolved, the beauty of the snow gently flaking the windshield gave me comfort, the sight of mud and snow in the fields reminded me of how priceless this will be when the grass and flowers come into bloom.

Life is every day, one day at a time. Follow the geese. Stay focused on where you need to be. Little things take care of themselves. Geese mastered this before we were here. We can learn from them.