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| Sable Island horse. Image by sleepyorange. |
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A GREETING
‘With God are wisdom and strength;
God has counsel and understanding.
(Job 12:13)
A READING
‘But ask the animals, and they will teach you; the birds of the air, and they will tell you; ask the plants of the earth, and they will teach you; and the fish of the sea will declare to you. Who among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of every human being.
(Job 12:7-10)
MUSIC
A MEDITATIVE VERSE
He is mindful of his covenant for ever,
of the word that he commanded, for a thousand generations
(Psalm 105)
A POEM
I am not an ocean narrative. My feet
are fingernail-soft, long hair
and wide gaze tangledrawn
to shifting tides that rip
and rail against the sand...
Weedy morass, short-stumping
this newbred hide grips
all Atlantic spray. Pendent swing
of ice shies fetlocks upon
the slopes. Agency through exile.
We are our own.
Storm plains flex narrow dunes
to claim marrow. Cold bones
sink to sea, where we need
no hand to steer us home.
- from "Sable Island Horses," by Siobhan Hodge
VERSE OF THE DAY
Those who live at earth’s farthest bounds are awed by your signs;
you make the gateways of the morning and the evening shout for joy.
(Psalm 65:8)
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| Sable Island horse. Image by William Anderson. |
“Ask the animals and they will tell you.” Even from the midst of agonizing physical and emotional pain and loss, Job wants his friends to understand not just that God is the author of everything, but that Creation itself knows this. Creation knows the nearness of God and God’s infinite capacity to be a Maker of things.
The waters off the Grand Banks of Newfoundland still flow with the Labrador Current out into the Atlantic, and almost at the place where they meet the upward moving Gulf Stream, there is Sable Island, Nova Scotia, a long slim sandbar island that runs just over 40 kilometres long and less than a kilometre wide. It is wholly unspoilt, with the only human habitation that of the Canada Parks rangers who help to protect it. In fact humans have run afoul of it by sea, running their boats aground on its deceptively shallow waters. It is famously the home to more than 500 wild horses and thousands of gray seals.
During Hurricane Fiona, in 2022, rangers remarked that the horses seemed to “know.” Before the storm came, they made their way to the few sheltered parts of the island, hunkering down there and forming groups. Although the few buildings on the island were torn by the hurricane, the animals emerged the next day and resumed grazing. “Ask the animals and they will tell you….”
Today’s music, written by the Spell Songs creative team, documents the writing of songs based on a book called The Lost Words, by Robert MacFarlane and Jackie Morris. The book is a collection of poetry and illustrations celebrating words that were dropped from an update to a children’s dictionary in the UK. Many of the 'lost words' were words that describe creatures and plants. The poems were then adapted to songs. As barren and as flat as Sable Island is, at least three of the ‘lost words’ can be found there: bramble, heather and lobster. In addition, Sable Island is the only place in the world where the Ipswich Swallow nests.
God makes every part of Creation connected to another part.
The biblical horse had a terrible life. Reserved almost entirely for battle, horses appear in scripture only in connection with war and fighting. At the same time, Deuteronomy prohibits the owning of too many horses for fear of gaining power over others. Nowhere in the bible, does a horse just get to be a horse.
But in the expressed word that is God’s Creation, horses run free on Sable Island, lasting for generation after generation without interference of human beings. How much more might we know if we could truly listen to the animals and the plants for what they can teach us? What can they tell us about what God still wants us to know?
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A STORY OF ENDURANCE
This brief video made by Canada Parks describes the wild terrain of Sable Island and its inhabitants.
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Resources in today's devotion:
Scripture passages are taken from the New Revised Standard Version.
Full lyrics for The Lost Words Blessing can be found in the youtube notes for today's music. They are here.
To read more about The Lost Words Spell Songs collective, go here.
Siobhan Hodge is an award-winning Australian poet. Find out more about her here.
To learn more about Sable Island horses and seals, visit the Parks Canada website.
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LC† Streams of Living Justice is a devotional series of Lutherans Connect, supported by the Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and the Centre for Spirituality and Media at Martin Luther University College. To receive the devotions by email, write to lutheransconnect@gmail.com. The devotional pages are written and curated by Deacon Sherry Coman, with support and input from Pastor Steve Hoffard, Catherine Evenden and Henriette Thompson. Join us on Facebook. Lutherans Connect invites you to make a donation to the Ministry by going to this link on the website of the ELCIC Eastern Synod and selecting "Lutherans Connect Devotionals" under "Fund". Devotions are always freely offered, however your donations help support the ongoing work.
Thank you and peace be with you!