For I the Lord your God, Hold your right hand; 

It is I who say to you, “Do not fear, I will help you.

Isaiah 41:13

St. Teresa of Avila often startles me when I read her books. Sometimes she exclaims in the middle of a thoughtful paragraph how little she knows, when all evidence points to the contrary. 

“As I am so stupid in these matters…” she says of herself as she starts to tell us about the third mansion in her classic work, Interior Castles, which is a devotional text that is still read widely over five hundred years later. I wonder how much of her self-debasement reflects the pressure she was under as a woman, and a leader, in Spain during the Inquisition.

Other times she erupts into praise and worship right in the middle of a thought. “O my Lord and my God! How wondrous is Thy greatness!” She exclaims in the middle of a paragraph about the fourth mansions. She uses mansions to describe the stages a soul progresses through as the soul grows in maturity and moves toward union with God.  She pluralizes mansion here to express variety in the life of God. 

She also refers to herself as a worm more than once in this book, even going so far as to include us, her readers, in the analogy too.

“It will do us no harm to find that it is possible in this our exile for so great a God to commune with such malodorous worms.” 

I think about being beloved by God. I think about being accepted as a child of God. I do not often consider that I am a stinky worm with whom God loves and desires friendship.  

And yet, in the middle of Isaiah, I found this:

Do not fear, you worm, Jacob,

You insect Israel!

I will help you, says the Lord;

Your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel. 

Isaiah 41:14

St. Teresa’s language is entirely Biblical. 

Who am I but a worm or insect?

This reality is humbling. 

And yet God is right there, ready to help. So ready that “do not fear” is repeated twice. As I listened to the invitation to be humble earlier, pondering my worminess, I discovered that it was also an invitation to partner with God. He wants me. Humility makes the Kingdom of Heaven thrive. Humility doesn’t hide–it gets right into the messy work with God. 

Worms create fertile soil conditions. When I find them in my garden, I get excited, because I know that the soil is healthy. Good things grow from soil rich with worms. 

Insects pollinate. They’re critical to our food supply. Traveling from flower to flower, they deliver the pollen that brings forth fruit from plants and trees. We need them. 

Fertile soil and good fruit are images Jesus uses in his parables to tell us about the Kingdom of Heaven.

Do not fear, you worm, Jacob, You insect Israel! I will help you, says the Lord; Your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.

Who am I but a worm or insect?

I am small. But I am not unseen. I have a valued place in God’s mission. The Lord will help me. In the vast, sweeping expanse of God’s love, what seems insignificant, smelly, even squashable, is given purpose and helps bring forth fruit. 

Who but our God wants to (and can) hold the right hand of a worm?

“O my Lord and my God! How wondrous is Thy greatness!”