The Grace Beneath a Duck

I grew up seeing ducks. Maybe you did to. From my bird books, I identified all kinds of ducks and distinguished them by their plumage and behavior. I’ve seen ducks for sixty years, seen them beautifully fly, glide across a lake, dive and resurface, waddle cutely on land—always with the pervasive quack.

But while my wife was shopping at Lake Arrowhead, I watched the ducks in crystal-clear water. I was amazed. I have never before witnessed the many ways in which ducks move their feet underwater. Their techniques are like that of a skilled canoeist. They narrow (or feather) their feet as they slip them forward, then spread them wide, forming a paddle when they push back. That’s common knowledge. But I also saw how they would stick one leg out and pedal the other to turn, or they would put both feet down, webs wide, to stop. They would pedal one leg forward, and one backward to pivot. They would twirl their legs to pivot or zigzag back-and-forth. They would extend their legs at different lengths and different angles to go this way or that. Every movement was made with precision and grace.

The duck is not considered a graceful bird, but the way their legs move underwater, usually unseen, is an exhibit of profound, and hidden, gracefulness in the animal kingdom.

I wondered how many more things in daily life at which I’ve only looked on the surface and not seen underneath. There are so many things of which we have only seen the surface. How many things in life do we think we understand but have not seen what lies beneath them?

God is at work in our personal lives, though we often don’t see beneath the surface of our activity. How many times has God worked in each of our lives, and we could see only the surface and not the grace beneath that directs what happens?

God is at work in the world. Yet how many times do we watch or read about what happens in the world but cannot realize the graceful movements of God behind what is seen as he orchestrates his will in the world?

May we all have eyes to see and a heart to seek what lies beneath, unseen—even if only by faith—regarding the ways of God, who works unseen and gracefully in our lives and in the world.