Beneath fallen leaves, in the whispering undergrowth, and clinging to webs sparkling with morning dew, a vibrant world teems unseen by most. Yet, profound lessons of spirituality and interconnectedness unfold within this miniature world.

Marcie R. Kearns’ enchanting book, “God’s Cool Creatures (I’m one, too!)”, invites us to explore this hidden microcosm. In the existence of the tiniest beings, invisible altars emerge – where the sacred mingles with the ordinary, revealing the extraordinary within the everyday.

The Divine in the Details

It’s easy to look for spirituality in the vast and the grandiose—the cathedrals, the mountaintop experiences, the expansive sunsets. However, Kearns shifts our gaze to the ground, to the small, to those creatures that we often deem insignificant.

Every ant trail, every spider web, every flutter of a butterfly’s wing carries within it a kind of worship, a testament to the creativity and care of a divine hand. These creatures live their lives in a rhythm and a system that speaks of a larger plan, a deeper magic.

Worship in the Wilderness

Consider the way a spider weaves its web in the early hours of the morning. There is a sacred geometry to its creation, a ritualistic quality that mirrors the most solemn religious ceremonies. The spider does not know that it performs a rite, yet there is something inherently holy about its daily toil. It creates, not just for survival but as an act of making the invisible world of order and beauty manifest in its silk threads.

Similarly, the seemingly mundane task of a bee, flitting from flower to flower, is nothing short of a dance before an altar. Pollination is crucial to the life cycle of plants and, hence, to the very life of our planet.

Here in this dance, we find a celebration of life, an ongoing festival that honors the interconnectedness of all living things. The bee, with its tiny wings, might as well be a priest before an altar, offering the incense of pollen to the sanctity of life.

Lessons from the Littleness

Kearns masterfully draws spiritual parallels between the lives of these creatures and the spiritual journey of humans. Just as a caterpillar undergoes metamorphosis to become a butterfly, we, too, are called to transform, to continually evolve into better versions of ourselves. The cocoon, a small creature’s chamber of solitude, challenges us to find value in stillness and patience, awaiting the revelation of our true forms.

Ants teach us about community and the strength in unity. Their life is a constant reminder that no member is too small, no effort too minor and that salvation often lies in collective endeavor and mutual support. In their tiny societies, we see a model of communal living that human societies strive to emulate—a testament to the wisdom embedded in even the tiniest of God’s creatures.

The Altars All Around Us

“Invisible Altars” are not just the domains of small creatures; they are all around us, in every moment of our lives, in every small act of kindness, in every moment of silent prayer. Kearns invites us to lower our gaze—not in submission, but in recognition—of the sacred spaces that exist at our feet, in the gardens, the parks, and even the cracks of urban sidewalks where nature insists on being heard.

These spaces encourage us to adopt a more contemplative stance towards the world, to recognize the divine that saturates everything. It’s in the whisper of leaves, the scuttle of a beetle, the symmetry of a leaf.

Kearns suggests this is where we might come to understand the essence of spirituality—not as something set apart from the world but deeply embedded within it, waiting to be discovered daily.

Marcie R. Kearns’ “God’s Cool Creatures (I’m one, too!)” is not merely a tribute to the unnoticed; it is a call to re-enchant our view of the world, to see the divine in the small and to recognize the invisible altars where small creatures worship through their very existence.

Let us then turn our attention to these tiny altars and, perhaps in doing so, find a new way to engage with the sacred in our lives, learning the profound lessons taught by the smallest among us.