The Holy Spirit as the Wild Goose

The reference to the Wild Goose in this blog is an ancient one, a Celtic term for the Spirit of God. 

Christianity was thought to have taken root on the Scottish isle of Iona in the sixth century through the work of the Christian missionary named Columba. The Celtic culture highly revered the natural world and believed that their land was a “thin place”, a spot where the veil that exists between heaven and earth could be so thin that the Divine could be more easily experienced. 

The Celts symbolized the Holy Spirit as a Wild Goose – unpredictable and free as compared to the more docile and delicate dove espoused by the Roman Catholic church.  

While these “thin places” are not limited to physical locations around the globe, it is this delicate membrane between the Sacred and the Natural where the undeniable presence of the Wild Goose can be found.

Jesus said that Christians who were led by the Spirit were like the wind— not knowing where it comes from nor where it is going (John 3:8). Take a moment to visualize yourself in the scene from Acts 2 at the Feast of Pentecost when “suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven, filling the entire house. Then they saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in tongues as the Spirit enabled them.”

Believers who follow the Spirit of God should be wild and free themselves, living lives that are less than predictable….untamed either by a society that would deceive them into conforming to its increasingly evil ways or by “religion” that would bind them with the chains of duty and obligation. 

This is a journal of my experiences chasing the Wild Goose…a quest to discover the “thin places”. Join me in the adventure – God awaits!