Observation: God creates by speaking. On the fifth day, after creating light, the sky, the land, vegetation, the sun, moon and stars, God creates living creatures, first in the sea, then on the land. Then God gives the very first command to God's creation: be fruitful and multiply. All this happens before there are any people on the face of the Earth.
Application: This week is the feast day of Francis of Assisi, who famously preached to the animals of the wilderness (among many other very cool church-renewing things). Tonight we're going to do a "blessing of the animals" during our Wednesday evening worship. We're doing this because caring for animals is essential to our faith.
Our scriptures declare that even before humankind, God blessed the animals and told them to be fruitful and multiply: essentially, to live and be who God made them to be. Currently, our planet is losing species at an alarming rate, and much of that is due to human activity: habitat loss, among other things. This isn't just bad for humankind (although it is REALLY bad for us). It's also a sin against God, because we are taking away the ability of other forms of life to fulfill their covenant with God. To allow and encourage life to thrive, and be what God made it to be, isn't just a nice thing to do. It's holy work. Animals have their own relationship with God. When we get out of the way, it tends to go pretty well.
Prayer: God, thank you for the animals we know, for our pets, for working animals, for those whose lives give life and abundance to us. And bless the animals who live their lives independent of us, who we may never see or know. Let them be pleasing to you by just "being". And keep us from careless attitudes, that might make their just "being" much more difficult. Amen.
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