There was a man who did not believe in God and was never shy to tell everybody about his attitude towards religion. His wife, on the contrary, believed in God and reared their children in the faith in spite of the rancid remarks of her husband.

One winter night, the wife and the children went to a village church, expecting to hear a sermon about the Nativity of Christ. The wife invited her husband to go to the church with them but he declined. “All that story is absurd.” – he said. – “Why would God need to humiliate himself and appear on earth as a man? It's ridiculous!”

His wife and children left, and he was alone. After a while, a strong wind started blowing and a snowstorm broke out. The man looked into the window but all he could see was endless snow. He sat comfortably in the chair and prepared to spend the rest of the evening in front of the fireplace. All of a sudden, he heard a loud clap: something hit his window. He came closer to the window but he was unable to see anything. When the blizzard somewhat faded, he went outdoors to see what had caused the loud noise. He saw a flock of wild geese in the field near his house. They were heading south but got caught up in the snowstorm and could not go any further. They lost their way and found themselves at his farm without food or shelter. They were flying low above the field, blinded by the snow. It must have been one of those geese that knocked into the man's window. He sympathized with the poor birds and decided to help them. He thought that the cowshed was the most suitable place for them. It was warm and safe, and they could easily spend the night in the cowshed and wait for the blizzard to stop. He went to the cowshed and opened its doors wide. He was standing there, waiting for the geese to walk into the cowshed.

However, the geese were flying around in circles and apparently didn't notice the open cowshed door or didn't understand what it was for. The man tried to catch their attention but he only scared the geese. The man went back home and returned with a loaf of bread. He scattered breadcrumbs along the road leading to the cowshed. The geese didn't fall for it, either.

The poor man was on the brink of despair. He sneaked up on the geese from behind and tried to drive them to the cowshed but the geese were even more terrified and started flying in all directions, except the direction of the cowshed. There was nothing that could make them go to the cowshed, where they could be warm and safe. “Why don't the geese follow me?” the man exclaimed. “Can't they see that it's the only place where they can survive during this blizzard?” He stood there thinking and realised that the geese simply didn't want to follow a human being. “If only I were a goose, I could have saved them,” the man said aloud. He came up with a brilliant idea. He went to his cowshed, took one of his geese and brought it into the field, far from the wild geese who were flying in circles. He released the goose. The goose flew through the flock of wild geese and returned to the cowshed. One by one, all other geese followed him.

The man stood there quietly, and all of a sudden he once again heard the words that he had uttered moments before, “If I were a goose, I could save them.” Then he recalled the words he had said to his wife earlier, “Why would God become like us? It's ridiculous!” Suddenly, it dawned on him that it was precisely what God had done. We used to be like those geese: blind, forlorn, and doomed. God sent his son to become like one of us, so that He could show us the way to salvation.

When the wind and the blinding snow started to calm down, his soul was also relieved and comforted by this wonderful thought. He suddenly realised why Jesus had come. Years of doubt and disbelief dissipated together with the snowstorm. He fell to his knees in the snow and said his first prayer ever, “Thank you Lord for coming to this world in human form to deliver me from the tempest!”