Ask the universe, the adornment of the heavens, the brilliance and arrangement of the stars, the sun, the sufficiency of the day, the moon, the solace of the night. Ask the earth, bearing fruit in herbs and trees, filled with animals, adorned with men. Ask the sea, full of such great and varied aquatic creatures! Ask the air, flourishing with such great flying creatures! Ask all things if they do not, in their own sense, as it were respond to you, ‘God made us!’

Augustine, Sermon 141 on John 14:6.