This is good place to confess with pride that my Mom is a paleontologist. Her work honors the fascinating diversity and development of life past and present. I have heard her comment more than once that God must have a particular fondness for beetles, given their great abundance! Humanity is a very small fraction of the enormous complexity of life on earth. As Charles Darwin writes in his Origin of Species, “from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.” I also hear echoes of the theological Paul Tillich in this piece; he called God our “ground of being,” which resonates both spiritually and ecologically.

This text is a call to humility and celebration of the earth’s diversity. Thanks to Ben Brody for a stirring tune. You can find a preview of the text and music here. It is also included in Ben’s collection, At the Weaving of Creation. This piece can be reproduced for worship using One License.