All Creation Waits
All Creation Waits—Deluxe Edition, Gayle Boss, illustrated by Sharon Spitz. Paraclete Press (ISBN: 9798893480764) 2026.
Summary: Twenty-five Advent reflections on how woodland animals adapt to winter’s coming, how they wait with us for life anew.
When Gayle Boss’s children were growing up, she created Advent calendars with an animal behind each door. They reflected on how each of the animals prepared themselves for the repose of the dark days of winter, and awaited the lengthening days that signalled spring. In 2016, she turned these reflections into the first edition of All Creation Waits. It became a bestseller and has found its way around the world. Now, Paraclete Press has released a deluxe collector’s edition in honor of the book’s tenth anniversary. And I was fortunate enough to receive a copy! [Paraclete Press also sells the original edition, a gift edition, and a children’s edition.]
The book is a feast to hold and behold, coming with a foil embossed slipcase, gilded page edges, and a ribbon marker. Each day’s reflections on the woodland animals is paired with several exquisite illustrations by Sharon Spitz. I found myself at times just sitting and taking in all the detail of the animals in their natural settings. There are twenty-five reflections for the month of December concluding with Christmas Day. Twenty-four of these are of woodland animals with the reflection on Christmas Day on Jesus, oborn among the animals, laid in one of their mangers.
As she did with her children, she begins with the painted turtle. We learn it swims to the bottom of a pond where its body temperature drops to just above freezing, it stops breathing and its heart slows almost to stopping. All she does is wait. Oxygen depletion leads to the buildup of lactic acid, neutralized by calcium from her bones and shell. It is stillness that saves her to emerge with spring.
Over the days we learn of black bears and honey bees, eastern fox squirrels, wood frogs, and fireflies, loons, bats, and lake trout, and many more. We learn about their habitats and how they prepare for winter. Some, like bears, eat like crazy, and then burn it off during hibernation. Others, like squirrels hide stores of food all around (including the flower pots by my front door!). At least now I understand why.
Perhaps the most fascinating to me was the porcupine, who doesn’t seek a warm den or cave but continues to live in the cold treetops, who survives on tree bark, and smells of old sawdust! I also came to appreciate the cardinals I see in winter, and how they live on the knife-edge of life and death, building enough of a fat reserve in the fall to stay warm but still light enough to perch and fly to re-fuel on whatever seeds he can find, always risking being seen by the predator hawk.
In addition, each reflection opens with a quote from a famous writer. I love George Washington Carver’s succinct observation: “If yoy love it enough, anything will talk to you.” Usually, we consider Pelagius one of the theological “bad guys.” But there is a marvelous quote from him of the indwelling of God’s Spirit in each of the creatures, preceding the reading on the opossum. There is also a section, “More Animal Wonderment” with even more information about each of the animals
Above all, the reader discovers that we are not the only ones who wait as the days shorten toward Christmas. All creation joins us. Through Gayle Boss’s keen observations of the creatures around her western Michigan home, we not only experience virtual “nature walks.” She also leads us day by day in journeys of wonder as we approach Christmas Day. Buy a copy for yourself and one for a friend you love!
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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.