For the beauty of the earth…
For the glory of the skies…
For the love which from our birth…
Over and around us lies…
Lord of all to Thee we raise
This our hymn of grateful praise.
–Folliott S. Pierpoint, 1864
According to Robert Morgan, this well-known hymn is one of only a few Christian songs devoted wholly to giving thanks. “One of the strange things about ‘the attitude of gratitude,'” he notes, “is that we tend to exhibit it in reverse proportion to the number of blessings we receive. The more we have, the less thankful we are.”
Oh, friends, let that not be true of us! Let us not fail to give thanks. Let us not fail to see all that we have to be thankful for.
Let us instead sing out our thanks to the Lord of all—for the beauty of the earth, for the glory of the skies, for God’s unfailing love that surrounds us from our first breath to our final one.
May we be a people who see the manifold gifts, who name them one by one like the beads on a rosary, who offer up a constant hymn of grateful praise to the Lord of all good gifts.
*****
May your Thanksgiving, friends, be full of thanks giving, which always, eventually, leads to joy.
I love this post! The pictures remind me of what makes life rich. Babies. Family. Sunshine. God’s beauty in nature!
Funny story: Your blog serves as a respite from work. I’ve been complaining to my husband all morning about my round-the-clock work schedule at my desk, and thus, he knows I have little time to discuss family matters with him this morning. That’s the context in which he entered my home office this morning.
The top of this post was displayed across my screen when he came in to talk to me. He said, “Andrea, can you please take a break from (looks at my screen) looking at . . . leaves . . . to listen to me?”
Hahahaha!
Andrea, this story made me laugh–out loud. Thanks so much for sharing it 🙂
Love it, love it. And I love this hymn, too. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, Kimberlee!
Oh yes, and wondrous pictures to go with this beloved hymn.
Thank you, Connie!
I’m late to this one, but wow! Thank you, indeed!
Hi Marcus,
Thanks for stopping by! I’m glad you got to see a little bit of fall color–even if was only in pixels 🙂
Warmly,
Kimberlee
—
Kimberlee Conway Ireton
author, The Circle of Seasons: Meeting God in the Church Year http://kimberleeconwayireton.net
Facebook: kimberleeconwayireton | Twitter: @kconwayireton