On my brief ride into own in the twilight hours of dawn, I had a tune wandering through my head; a tune that I couldn't quite grasp hold of enough to sing or even hum. The tune was taunting me to strain to remember. As I stood in the church yard and listened to the song of the birds as they were waking up around me, their melody and the elusive tune in my head began to take shape. By the time I was driving home, passing by the misty river with the sun straining to peek through the rain clouds, unconsciously, I began to hum/sing the song. 🎶 For the beauty of the Earth, for the mmmm mmmm of the mmmmm....Christ something something something something Praise.🎵 I couldn't get there, but I wasn't really trying. Later, as I ate breakfast on the back porch, the puppies ran around the yard, the puppy cat headed for his bush and I stared at my hibiscus and lavender. Little drops of rain, glistening like diamonds, hung from their delicate leaves. My eyes are drawn to the sky noticing the sun threatening to push the clouds right out its way and bake us with its warmth. And again, For the beauty of the earth, for the glory of the skies, for hmmmmmmmm Christ something something something something Praise. This time I try hard(ish) to remember the lyrics. I feel like I should know them. As I open my Bible to begin round two of my prayer time for the morning, I head to Hebrews where I left off last week, Hebrews 14. As I reach verse 15 and 16 I read, "Through Him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise." I linger, longer, staring at the sky, the hibiscus and the promise held in the tightly woven buds, the scent of lavender blowing towards me and I begin to sing aloud...
For the beauty of the earth, for the glory of the skies,
For the love which from our birth over and around us lies:
Christ our God to thee we raise this our hymn of grateful praise.
Boom! There it is! I got there. Phew! I haven't totally lost it!
Now, it won't go away. As I begin to meditate on scripture, doodle a bit to flesh out my thoughts with God's thoughts, Fin, the puppycat decides to return from his bird nest gazing and hops up on my lap. As he moves on to his next adventure, he leaves behind a gift. Having the longest, bushiest, raccoon like tail means he is often leaving gifts of nature items that stick to his tail like velcro. The tiniest leaf, sat there on my bible. And so it begins, again. 🎶For the beauty of the earth...
Apparently, I needed reminding that God, in is infinite glory gives us all the beauty, and in my praise I am grateful. For some reason, Folliotte Pierpoint, the composer of the song edited the words of scripture from "sacrificial" to "grateful." What would it mean if we rose up sacrificial praise. That our praises took us over, much like this ear worm did today for me. I know how ear worms go for me, it will be an all day adventure. As I work out, as I write, as I rest, as I read, the song will be there. Let my praise be found in that song rolling in my head. Let it take me over. Let my song raise to the heavens; grateful, sacrificial praise, for the God's beauty found within the earth.
Today
- Notice God's beauty
- Praise Him for what you see
- If you can, go outside and enjoy
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