(Previously Published on Mrs Words Blog)

I saw something yesterday (I unfortunately couldn’t stop and take a photo) that really struck me and I just felt to share…

I was driving along on my way to pickup my kids from school and on the road in front of me I saw a dead animal (what we Australian’s call ‘road-kill’). With the amount of driving I do, this is not an uncommon sight unfortunately. I know you are thinking right now – what on earth is she doing writing about road-kill? I promise that it’s not really what my story is about, so please stick with me.

As I drove closer, I sadly realised that it was a dead duck. Now, over the past few weeks, I had seen quite a few ducks on this particular stretch of road, usually in pairs or three’s, but not many more than that together. I had been thinking that I had never seen so many ducks before and wondering if it was just the one little group that I kept seeing or if there were a few different packs. Well, today I got my answer.

You see, the thing that struck me was, on the side of the road, right where the dead duck was, there were at least six or eight ducks now congregated. They were standing there, faces turned towards the road. It was almost like they were mourning together. The community had gathered to lament and grieve the loss of one of their own. I was astonished at this sight. I didn’t know that ducks did that, but even more, it made me think about us humanoids (as my eldest son likes to call us humans).

Don’t we gather together in community to grieve the loss of one of our own? How incredible is God, our Creator, that He created community? So, if the ducks gather and commune together, grieve together, spend time together, raise families together – how much more should we? Who are your ducks?

But wait, there is more! I also noticed a black crow hovering nearby, also eyeing the dead duck. My husband aptly called him “the devourer”, waiting to swoop in and take a bite, a piece for himself, without care for anything else that was going on. But, while the gathering of ducks was standing there on the side, he was hovering back, on the sidelines. There were too many living ducks in the community to make the swooping in worth it at that point. He had to stand down.

Isn’t it true that we are all stronger with community? That together, if we are focused on the same thing (eyes on the road, looking forward) and are united, the enemy (the devourer) has less chance of attacking and swooping in when one of us is feeling under the weather.

My dear friend, who are you doing community with? Who are your ducks, your people? Who do you do life with and gather with, grieve with, spend time with, raise families with? Are they the kind of people that you can rely on and trust to gather around when one of you is hurting? Are you the kind of person that others can turn to and mourn with, or celebrate with? Is there a community around you that can stand with you, united against the attacks of the enemy? Who are your ducks?