Two Hundred Ducks and a Dead Crow

Some good friends of ours recently had a lovely holiday in the Yorkshire Dales. The obligatory pictures on Facebook showed hills, rivers, waterfalls… stone walls, rocky crags, village churches…

Returning home they discovered that two hundred ducks had moved into their house. There were ducks in many interesting and unexpected places downstairs – apparently ducks can’t climb stairs. The sense of humour of certain non-holidaying family members was evident…

Many years ago a colleague primary-school teacher arrived at school on Monday morning with his carefully prepared his lessons. A child in his class put a dead crow on his teacher’s desk.

The teacher didn’t panic, show horror, or reprimanded the child. Instead he saw this as a wonderful teaching opportunity. Putting his prepared lessons to one side, the dead crow became the creative focus for many of that week’s lessons.

At work we were often encouraged to have ‘SMART’ goals – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Timely. They helped us to remain focused, demonstrate progress, target our resources, work to deadlines.

However, they didn’t allow for the unexpected. With SMART targets there’s no space for multiple ducks or a lifeless crows.

Rob Burrow, the outstanding rugby league footballer who died last year of Motor Neurone Disease, leaving a wife and three young children, said, ‘MND isn’t incurable, it’s underfunded. So it makes me proud that the noise I’m making and the money people are raising on my behalf are helping to make things happen. And it makes me want to keep fighting until my last breath.’ 

Scientific MND research welcomes the appearance of unexpected ducks or crows.

Joshua was leading the Israelite nation into their much-anticipated Promised Land. Jushua gives the instructions as they crossed the River Jordan: ‘…Then you will know which way to go, since you have never been this way before.’

Joshua wasn’t setting SMART targets. Faith in his God meant that, stepping into the unknown, he wouldn’t be phased by anything… even two hundred ducks or a dead crow.