A Prayer

“God, please help me with the beautiful creatures of your planet.”

Anonymous

At our church’s Sunday service at the end of 2019, we conducted a ritual burning of ema cards. Over the past year, members had placed these cards, each with a written prayer or wish, on the ema stand. The ritual burning is a way of visibly releasing the prayers. By the time of this service, our stand was an angel of longings, draped in flutters of white. 

As the participants filed past, each of us selected a card or two from anonymous congregants to carry outside to the fire that burned in a large bowl. Though I had two cards in my hand, I happened only to read the one quoted at the top of this post. I imagined a child wrote it, but there’s no way to be sure. Had it come about because of the wildfires raging in Australia and the hundreds of thousands of animals killed there? Perhaps the person who wrote it has witnessed the ways in which many of God’s beautiful creatures are senselessly harmed through human greed and ignorance, through a lack of understanding that we—all of God’s creatures—are connected. We are in relation, for good or ill, with all we encounter, from the soil on which we build to the mosquito that lands on our arm to the Great Blue Heron standing on the muddy bank of a neighborhood pond.

Those simple words prompted me to reflect on how I might be of more service to our earth and her beautiful creatures. One way I do this is by trying to view each one as a being worthy of life, just as I am. I donate money to and buy products from organizations that help save endangered species, defend wildlife, and support people struggling to live. 

I also give of my time to a few organizations. But I could do more. It’s far too easy for me to assume others will take care of things, to tell myself I don’t have enough time, that I can’t take on anything else, that what I do won’t really matter. And yet the world is burning around us, literally. Our home is on fire. 

Yes, God, I thought as I dropped the card into the flames, please help me with the beautiful creatures of your planet: the plants, the insects, the animals, the people. All creatures, great and small. In all, there is brokenness and beauty. Help me heal what’s broken and contribute to the beauty.