Thursday mornings I pick up the kids from the home farthest away for carpool. They stuffed themselves into my "standard sized" Malibu and settled in for the half hour ride to school, plugging in their earbuds and leaning their heads against the back of the seat. I worry that our society will soon be changing all services to 'open at lunch, close at midnight' hours. There will be nothing for morning people!
Because they live five or six miles farther north, I have to take the 531/490/390 routes which means encountering traffic slowdowns. I wove my way over the winding back roads to the 531 on ramp, heading past the fruit farm with all the blossoming apple trees, turned left by the barn, zipped past the horse farm with three big blacks munching quietly near the worn fences of the roadside ring. Then a right onto Shepherd Road. I am not the only person shortcutting through the back way. Four cars in front of me blink yellow as they slow for the direction change.
Others tend to drive a bit faster than I do. Shepherd Road winds around some, and there are deep irrigation ditches on both sides of the road. I always feel as if I am "walking a tightrope" so to speak. There are some industrial complexes, and cars ahead of me turn in here and there. One car had just turned in front of me, and I was starting to accelerate when I saw them.
"Babies!" I exclaimed, and a few heads in the back poked up with interest. There in the road in front of us waddled a crew of about a dozen fuzzy babies geese chaperoned by two adult geese. Not exactly a gaggle of geese. More like a giggle, especially watching them navigate the cracks in the pavement and figuring out how to deal with the tall grass on the other side of the road.
They were all safely across, but one of the adult wandered back to the middle of the road, standing stubbornly right in the way of the car. "Come on, Dad," I mumbled. "Move aside." I was about to beep the horn when three stragglers stumbled out of the grass and spilled into the road. The goose nipped at them, pushing them along, his wings extended in a flapping protective way. I would not want to cross that guy!
Finally they were safely to the other side, and I was able to drive on, glancing in the mirror at the several cars behind me who were no doubt wondering what on earth I was doing at a dead standstill in the middle of the road for no apparent reason.
As I edged into traffic on the expressway, it occurred to me that I had just seen a perfect picture of my heavenly Father watching over me, making sure I was safe from danger, standing guard to keep the big bad things from flattening me. I smiled at my sleeping passengers and changed lanes for the 390 exit.
1 comment:
Esther, Tom has a duckling/gosling (I don't remember which)story. He was traveling on Jefferson near the mall when he spied a family trying to get all their little ones across. Some of them couldn't make it up the curb, so Tom stopped to assist. Papa let Tom boost the little ones up and they proceeded on their way. You never know when God may ask you to lend a hand!
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