Dear Ones of St. Columba's,

"Earth teems with sights and textures, sounds and vibrations, smells and tastes, electric and magnetic fields. But every animal can only tap into a small fraction of reality’s fullness. Each is enclosed within its own unique sensory bubble, perceiving but a tiny sliver of an immense world."   - Ed Yong in An Immense World

This past summer I read the book that holds this quote, by Ed Yong, and it changed the way I see the world. Yong uses a particular word that you may have heard me use in sermons since - umvelt - to describe the particular sliver of the world that each species of life in God's wide and wonderful creation can experience. I listened to the book on audio throughout the summer, often while on long walks and hikes with Wanda, our family dog. As I listened to Ed talk about how ants taste with their feet, and how dogs time travel using their sense of smell and how bees see colors that we can't really even imagine I was filled with wonder at the multiverse that surrounds us, and the miracle that we are able to co-exist in it with animal friends at all. 

But we do live, and live well, with animals, don't we? I know that pets are not everyone's cup of tea. I also know that I cannot quite imagine a home without some sort of animal companions in it - Andrew and I have loved dogs, cats, guinea pigs, and chickens over the course of our life together. Our Bible describes creation as beginning in a garden, with human beings and animals living together in harmony. Ed Yong's book suggests, to me, that in order for the fullness of God's creativity to be revealed, all these life forms are necessary - each one with a different umvelt, each one holding a different piece of the glorious puzzle that is God's created world. 

This Sunday we will mark the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, who is considered the patron saint of animals. Francis reportedly lived in harmony with the created world, calling the sun "Brother" and in one instance apparently having a serious and productive conversation with a wolf. Perhaps unsurprisingly he was not experienced nearly as harmoniously by other people - Francis' choice to embrace poverty and siblinghood with nature was deeply challenging to the societal order of his time. 

I do believe that spending time in nature, and having cherished relationships with animals, widens my capacity to make choices that center on the good of God, instead of what feels most convenient to me. The created world is one of the places where experience God's presence. I am certainly not the only one. 

So this Sunday all the pets are invited to come to church! This usually produces more chaos than we are used to in Sunday worship, but brings with it reminders that God blesses us with these unique relationships with animal creatures - opportunities to reach out from our particular sliver of experience to other beings who also live, taste, smell, see, and love but in their own unique ways. What a world we have been given to live and love within! What amazing creatures God has made to live here with us. Wanda and I can't wait to see some of them this Sunday morning at church.

with gratitude and wonder,

Alissa