From Your Antennae to Your Ovipositor

Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds. Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your judgments are like the great deep; you save humans and animals alike, O Lord. – Psalm 36:5-6 (NRSV) 

Bethany UCC is a church that prays for bugs.  

After an 18-month pressure campaign for a new pet; and having received nos to requests for geckos, lovebirds, budgies, and rats; my kiddo finally asked, “Can I have a cricket?” 

“Do you want a cricket?” I asked incredulously. And sensing weakness, they confirmed it was all they’d ever wanted. A single solitary cricket. Though the pet shop owner shook 4 into the bag. 

By morning, two had gone free-range. So we learned to close the lid more tightly and settled into being cricket caretakers. 

We learned to distinguish them. Blossom, the smaller, singing male. Soy, the three-legged female. Learned what foods they liked and how their sideways jaws worked. How susceptible they are to drowning and how to keep them safe. That they can lay 100 eggs at a time and how not to incubate them. 

And at the prayers of the people on Sunday, you know whose hand was the first in the air. 

Every year, on Pet Blessing Sunday, I formulate an overly precise blessing. A cautious prayer that I hope won’t promise too much about God’s relationship to dogs, and cats, and crickets. 

But the psalmist has no such qualms. “You save humans and animals alike, O Lord.” 

As if we were the same. As if salvation were for all. As if God’s steadfast love extended, not only up into the heavens, but down into the sand, under the piece of egg carton, in the comforting dark. 

And the closer I look, the more I suspect it does. 

About the Author
Vince Amlin is co-pastor of Bethany UCC, Chicago, and co-planter of Gilead Church Chicago, forming now.