All Creatures of our God and King

 
 
 
 

Last weekend our church hosted the "First Annual" (love those :)) Blessing of the Animals service. As the pastor of Children, Youth and Families, of course I was the pastor in charge :) of this event. We planned the service around the Feast of St. Francis on Oct.4 as he's known as the patron saint of animals. Even though I had nightmares prior to the evening of cat/dog fights and chickens being eaten by great danes, the event was much like Isaiah's vision of the peaceful kingdom, with the lion and the lamb (or in this case the cat, dog, snake and chicken) lying down together in harmony! It was extremely meaningful and also a ton of fun! Each of the pastors had an opportunity to lay hands on the pets and to bless them. We used the blessing from Numbers 5:24-25 for each of the animals. We also sang "He's got the whole world in his hands" and "All Creatures of our God and King." Most interesting animals were definitely the two chinese chickens, Harriet and Souflee, dressed up like a devil and an angel. We also had "Green B" the garden snake (Someone else got to bless him:)) and Helen the eye-less cat who is just about as trusting and sweet as it gets. All God's creatures showed up, about 75 animal ones and more than 100 humans, and we had a blast. And, maybe my other female minister friends will appreciate this, I got to wear my cowboy boots and match my stole to them :) (yes, the two male pastors made fun of me for coordinating my stole with my cowboy boots, but I was proud :))