Wild Goose

We were told there were bears in Black Mountain. The signs were everywhere: "Caution, Bear Territory;" or "Nature Area—Bear Habitat;" or my favorite: "Bears live here. Use Common Sense." We were even shown a video of a bear at night wandering through the area in which we would be staying. There is a difference, however, in knowing that bears live in an area and personally encountering a bear. Our first encounter with a black bear occurred as we were winding our way down from Mount Mitchell on the Blue Ridge Parkway. I came to a quick stop in the road when I saw the bear—the size of a large dog—just ahead of us, sitting in the opposite lane. As we gawked, the bear slowly mosied over to the car, getting within a couple of feet of the driver's window. Either he decided our black CRV looked like a distant cousin of his or we didn't smell interesting because, after a minute, the bear just ambled off down the road. Later while we were in one of the valleys, we saw a bear run out from a parking lot and across the road. I assumed a group of people had scared the bear away, but as we drove up to the parking lot, it became apparent that no one knew the bear had been there, a few feet away, as they loaded and unloaded their cars. The most surprising encounter, though, was the bear that wandered down the street outside our cabin at 4 p.m. He investigated some driveways, sniffed a trailer, and went on down his way. It was a clear reminder that we were in his territory, not the other way around.

Most of us live well-manicured lives. We have homes with flower beds. We get into our cards to drive to our jobs. We wear matching clothes and live by our calendars. Now, I am a big fan of indoor plumbing, modern medicine, and other manicured amenities. Yet every now and then, if we are lucky, we encounter something wild that shocks our awareness of its well worn ruts—something that reminds us of our place in the world or of purpose greater than ourselves, or that spontaneity can be a feature of life. Sometimes God is like this too. Like our bears, sometimes we only think to look for God on the mountaintop experiences. Sometimes God is right next to us in the parking lot, but we never looked up to notice. Often in scripture the Holy Spirit is described as a dove, which can make us think of a gentil and docile bird, but the Celtic Christians liked to imagine the Holy Spirit as a wild goose, honking and full of teeth, disturbing our patterns of life to show us a better way to live. May you encounter something wild this week, and may you see God with new eyes because of it.