The Crazy Goose Lady.
Repost from original Facebook post on October 21, 2021
My encounter with the Crazy Goose Lady.
God In Falconry
I trapped a big female juvenile red tailed hawk, which I named Mary in August of 2021. After I got her home I discovered she had one missing left wing feather and several other damaged feathers on that same wing. To make matters worse Mary began chewing on those damaged feathers making the situation much worse. I was so disappointed. She was a beautiful bird with lots of potential but she was in jeopardy of not being able to fly.
I decided to get an appointment with an Auburn University Clinic raptor veterinarian. This vet is a teaching professor at AU and works with the AU mascot eagles and the Southeastern Raptor Center which rehabilitates injured raptors.
My appointment was on Thursday, August 26th, 2021. I had an 11 am appointment and I got there extra early to get all the paperwork out of the way.
The vet came out around 10:30 am, looked around in the waiting area and said, “Where’s the goose lady?” . No one replied.
He then looked at me and said, “Well, I was supposed to see a lady with a goose but she’s a not here so I’ll go ahead and look at your bird.”
Ten minutes later the vet comes back out and tells me that all of the damaged feathers can be repaired AND they had time to do the repair now if I was willing to wait. Of course I would wait. I was ecstatic that the feathers could be repaired and that they were able to go ahead and do it. The vet called a young lady named Stephanie that works at the Southeastern Raptor Center to come over and repair the feathers while several Auburn University veterinary students observed.
In the mean time this small framed wirey lady comes in carrying a large dog carrier. I’d guess she was somewhere in her late sixties or seventies. She takes a seat in the lobby and waits since the vet is now busy with my bird.
Thru the window in the door to the exam room I’m trying to watch the raptor specialist repair the hawks feathers. It’s called imping feathers. A process where a donor birds feather are used to replace feathers on an otherwise healthy bird.
The goose lady sees me watching and sees my hawk transport box and asks me what kind of bird I have.
I explain to her what’s going on. I’m a falconer, I have a new hawk with some messed up feathers and the vet is fixing them.
She was genuinely interested and since she continues to ask me questions I walk away from the door to the exam room over to where she is sitting across the large open lobby.
When we get thru talking about my hawk I looked inside the dog crate and saw a huge goose just laying there quietly.
“So what’s wrong with the goose”, I asked.
This is what she told me.
She said,
“This morning my pet chicken, she’s kinda rules the roost, pecked my pet goose in the eye. When I looked at my pet gooses eye, I discovered the eye ball was missing. There was just an empty eye socket. I was so upset. I immediately went inside and called the vet’s office. Then I sat down and I prayed. I prayed for my gooses eye. Then I went back outside and looked again at my gooses eye and discovered that the eye was restored. The eye ball was back in place. God healed my goose!”, she declared confidently.
I sat there my mind swirling with the implication of what she just told me. Part of me wanted to believe her, part of me thought this is a crazy woman. But she didn’t seem crazy.
It seemed surreal. This crazy lady that so confidently believed in miracles. I was struck by her confidence. Her willingness to share her crazy story without any hesitation.
I thought for a second. Then in an uncharacteristic flash, I decided to tell her something I was burdened about. Something that had been weighting on my mind for several days. If she could share so openly, surely I could share back as well.
I told her, “I’ve got someone who has a need.”
She listened intently as I continued.
“I’ve got a young man in my hometown that needs prayer. He’s 33 years old in the hospital in ICU with covid. He’s on the vent and I’ve been praying for him. His dad is a friend of mine.”
I kind of expected her to say something like, I’ll put him on my prayer list or something like that. I mean that’s what I would have said. She didn’t say that.
As soon as the words were out of my mouth, “His dad is a friend of mine”, she began to speak.
It took me about 5 seconds of her speaking for me to figure out that she was actually praying out loud. She didn’t bow her head. She raised her right hand slightly and with eyes open just began to pray right there in that open veterinarian clinic lobby with people all around. She wasn’t loud, she just spoke in a normal confident voice.
She prayed for about 2 minutes. As she prayed I was overwhelmed by her boldness, her willingness to seize the moment and put her faith into action.
I don't really remember exactly what she said but I remember the gist of it. I remember the reverent yet familiar tone she had in her voice. I remember the empathy in her voice for this young man. I remember thinking to myself this is a God moment.
She asked for healing for a young man she didn’t know and would never meet. I remember she asked God to breath for this young man. She said, “Lord, Breath into his lungs your breath”. She praised God for who he was and for her assurance in what he could do. She prayed for others like him and those families hurting.
As she prayed I quickly realized I wasn’t with a crazy goose lady but with a fearless prayer warrior.
When she was done praying I thanked her and there was a silent moment.
Then she looked me in the eyes and said,
“You know, There are people all around us that need our help”. She nodded her head as if agreeing with her message.
What pierced me was that she said, “us” and “our”. “People ALL around US, need OUR help”. “All around US.”
I got a lump in my throat. I was grateful, overcome and convicted all at the same time.
In that moment it was like God was speaking directly to me,
“You know there are people all around us that need our help”
The vet came out and said that they were almost done with my bird and then he took the lady and her very large miracle goose into the next exam room.
Not long after I was headed home with a bird who’s feathers had been restored and a message from a crazy goose lady. Her words playing again and again in my mind as I drove. I thought , Now I know why I was given a hawk with feather issues.
On the drive home. I recalled a bible verse, something about man making a plan but God directing the steps. I made a mental note to look that up.
Later, I found it,
Proverbs 16:9;
“A man’s heart plans his way, But the LORD directs his steps.”
Sometimes chance encounters are by design.
Over two months later, on Friday evening (Oct 28th, 2021) that 33 year old young man that was in ICU came home to his very thankful family. Many many hundreds of people prayed for that young man. The crazy goose lady was just one of them.
Thank You Lord for being his breath.
Thank you crazy goose lady for your prayer and for your message.
I will long remember your words:
“You know, People all around us need our help.”
God is still in the miracle business.