Lent Day 7 | 40 to Life
Hello Redeemer family, I'm the reverend Grace Rigby. Welcome back to our 40 to Life daily reflections. Today is the seventh day of Lent.
For my reflection today, I want to introduce you to a neat tool for Lent that I discovered. It’s an online app called “40 Days with God’s Creatures”. You can view it either online or on your phone. This resource comes from a charity based in England that is on a mission to help Christians care for animals and live peacefully with all God’s creatures. The organization carries out this goal through their new lenten calendar. Today’s calendar entry invites participants to reflect on God’s creatures in scripture.
So… what kind of animals, birds, insects, or fish come to mind for you when we think of the Bible? Maybe the whale from the story about the prophet Jonah? Or the dove that brought Noah an olive leaf to indicate the flood was over? There are so many creatures scattered throughout the Bible. When I thought about this question, ants came to mind. You know the ants mentioned in the Book of Proverbs. Here, the author tells the reader to go watch the ants around them in order to gain wisdom. What a grand idea!
Have you ever watched ants before? Did you learn anything new? Or for that matter, have you ever watched any creature and wondered what the world looks like from their perspective? Going through this exercise helps to not only broaden and deepen our perspective, but also increase our concern for God’s creation.
So, I invite you all to reflect on which animals come to mind when you think of God’s creatures in scripture and to take a moment today to see what wisdom you can glean from the creatures around you.
The Rev. Grace M. Rigby
Associate Rector
The Episcopal Church of the Redeemer, Midlothian
