Spotted Salamander
Each spring, spotted salamanders await the first warm rain. That night is the big night, when everyone emerges from the rocks, logs, and other assorted hidey-holes they spent the winter in.
When that night comes, the forest teems with amphibians - spotted salamanders, wood frogs, all sorts of creatures who spend most of their time on land but need a temporary home in fresh water.
Their goal is the nearest vernal pool, a place where snowmelt and spring rains create a temporary ecosystem that can shelter and sustain eggs and juvenile salamanders long enough for the next generation to emerge onto dry land. Some salamander lineages have been traveling to the same ponds, generation by generation, for over ten thousand years! And yet, everything depends on seasonal rains, on snowmelt, and on the surrounding environment to sustain the pond just long enough for eggs to hatch and tadpole-like larvae to grow legs and lungs and venture out into the dry land - but not so long that predators like bullfrogs and fish can move in and make a meal of the transient critters.
What do you love about this particular creature?
What do they reveal to you about God and our faith?
I spent my undergraduate years as a lab assistant in an amphibian census project, and for four big nights and the springs, summers, and falls that followed I watched the magic that the first warm rains can bring - an end to the winter of cold and dry waiting, and the beginning of a new season, where new things might be possible.
There is something to be said about the spiritual discipline of waiting in hope. I have spent many winters in my soul, and often what sustains me is the thought that, like the spotted salamander, I am one warm rain away from a season of change and transformation. I don’t know when that rain is, but when it comes, I am ready to trust in that hope and venture out of my spiritual hidey-hole and seek the abundant life and love that God is calling me to.
Author - Will Harron
Will Harron lives in Greenfield, Massachusetts, working to connect Episcopalians to each other across New England.
He lives where the Green River meets the Deerfield river and the Deerfield River meets the Connecticut in a great river Valley, but loves to follow the tributary streams up to higher regions whenever possible.
God of Word and Light, you have ordained and constituted in a wonderful order the ministries of all creatures above and below. Mercifully grant that, as the disciples were granted to see Christ on earth, our eyes would be opened to the spiritual reality all around us today; through Jesus the Wisdom of Creation, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Creation Collect for St Michael and All Angels from Season of Creation, A Celebration Guide for Episcopal Parishes