This is a guest post by Naomi Brehm, a storyteller and poet I met at a conference earlier this year. Naomi works as an evangelist with Speak Life while also studying for a Graduate Diploma in Theology. You can find her work on the Speak Life podcast
Sussex was serving up its best. Winding country roads in summer sunshine were made for Sunday afternoon cycles like this one. Whizzing past fields and farms, my peripheral vision kept being interrupted by flashes of grey-white. I’d never seen anything like it before. Cobwebs are often intricate and beautiful and delicate, these were not. Dense, Halloween-style nets had been cast over whole sections of hedgerows.
Initial reaction: “gross.”
Secondary thought: “Ah, I should do Seth’s Inductive Nature Study thing.”
Seth and I had met a few days beforehand at Hutchmoot UK and quickly found common ground: both newly Irish citizens, both nature-admirers, both have a sneaky suspicion that the richest treasure is found in life’s slow lane. He explained his approach to hearing God’s voice in creation: take the Observation – Interpretation – Application method often used for studying Scripture, and use it to study Creation. Genius. He formulates it as Discover – Interpret – Respond. So I thought I’d test it out.
“Sorry, Lord, for thinking you’ve made something ugly. Help me see what you want to communicate through these strange things.”
Discover: A Vast Community
These mothy nets are made by Small Ermine Moths who live in such large communities (tens of thousands) that they become too visible, too vulnerable. But rather than dispersing into smaller groups and trying to fend for themselves alone, they weave these thick webs to hide in together.
Interpret: Togetherness Is A Non-Negotiable
God has promised that his people will be as numerous as the sand and stars (Gen 22:17). His church, like these moth families, is a vast community with an enemy ready to attack her. Perhaps these moths have something to teach us: even when it feels like it might be better to separate off, togetherness is a non-negotiable. Aloneness was the Not Good thing in a Very Good world (Genesis 2:18). We’re not meant to fight sin alone, or to resist the devil alone. The Lord provides us with other believers as part of his means of protection.
Respond: The Church is a Defence System
I’m new to Sussex, new to my job, new to my church community. This message from the moths landed as a timely reminder for me – Trinity Church Lewes aren’t just a ‘nice community’ to help me feel less lonely. They are a God-given defence mechanism in this season of change, and I theirs.
Woven together,
Defence to weather
Satan and sin,
Without and within
sethlewis.ie 