Stroll for Your Soul

Blessings.
Today we continue with our series of inspirational messages that will focus on Homes, as we take time to stroll our neighbourhoods, back yards, parks, or just sit and look out a window. This resource is adapted from, and used with permission from, The Prayer Bench (https://prayerbench.ca/). 
Our Habitat for Today :  Wasps in their Nest
Reflection: Standing in Awe 
Sadly, probably many of us have at some point googled how to get rid of a wasp nest. Or, perhaps we have purchased a lethal spray, waited to late evening when the wasps have returned to the nest, then sprayed this potent chemical foam into the nest sealing their exit, before leaving the scene quickly.   It does work. 
But, have we stopped to consider the intelligence and the architectural beauty of their home? 
The Queen spends the winter in a protected place, maybe under a piece of bark. Come spring and it is time to build a nest. Not build so much as to craft. The Queen uses her jaws to scrape bits of fibre from plants, logs, cardboard or fences and with her saliva breaks down the wood to produce a fibre that eventually dries as a strong, grey paper. She makes paper. 
This paper is shaped into a series of hexagonal cells which create “waterproof envelope.”  Their new home is vented at the top, and open at the bottom so the wasps can come and go. 
The Queen lays a fertilized egg into each cell and the life cycle continues.  
Video - A wasp building a nest.

Yes, wasps can be troublesome and the sting of a riled wasp hurts. But standing in awe goes a long way in finding other ways to live together in peace and harmony. 
Peace to your house Wasps. May God cause all to be well with you.

Focus for Your Stroll 
During the 2020 Season of Creation, from 1 September through 4 October, thousands of Christians on six continents united for a time of restoration and hope, a jubilee for our Earth, and they discovered radically new ways of living with creation.
As you stroll today, I invite you to pray this prayer before you Stroll :
“Jesus Christ, teach us to empathize with Earth.
Make our spirits sensitive to the cries of creation,
cries for justice from the land, the seas, and the skies.
Jesus Christ, make our faith sensitive to the groans of the Spirit in creation,
groans of longing for a new creation.
Jesus Christ, make our hearts sensitive to the songs of our kin,
songs of celebration from the sea, the forest, and the air.
Christ, teach us to care. Amen

Stroll now with deeper awareness of our kinship with creation. Look for the wasps and give thanks. 
When you return you might want to honour the skill of wasps by making paper. 
Instructions to make paper
And another way to make paper!

Peace, Rev. Gail