Psalm 65:8 -13
“6 By your strength you established the mountains;
you are girded with might.
7 You silence the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves,
the tumult of the peoples.
8 Those who live at earth’s farthest bounds are awed by your signs;
you make the gateways of the morning and the evening shout for joy.
9 You visit the earth and water it, you greatly enrich it;
the river of God is full of water; you provide the people with grain,
for so you have prepared it.
10 You water its furrows abundantly, settling its ridges, softening it with
showers, and blessing its growth.
11 You crown the year with your bounty;
your wagon tracks overflow with richness.
12 The pastures of the wilderness overflow,
the hills gird themselves with joy,
13 the meadows clothe themselves with flocks, the valleys deck themselves
with grain, they shout and sing together for joy.”
Tonight I sit and wait to see what tomorrow brings with the arrival of Tropical Storm/Hurricane Nicole – not so long after Hurricane Ian. My daughter and I are planning which video marathon we might play if we have electricity. One suggestion is to do a Jane Austen-ish day. As I think of King David’s 65th psalm that lauds the wonders of nature, I thought of the hymn, “For the Beauty of the Earth” and looked on the Internet. I found one version that opens with a clip from Little Women! The girls are singing the hymn “For the Beauty of the Earth”!
For many, a walk in nature is as refreshing and worshipful as a church service. The quiet beauty of nature reminds us of the presence of an unseen God that blesses our lives and holds on to us, even in storms. We often run through our day without stopping to appreciate nature, without stopping to praise. Storms, on the other hand, demand our attention with all their power for destruction, and remind us of other aspects of God’s being that we tend to minimize. We want a kind, loving God but we also want justice for the wrongs we have suffered.
One of Thanksgiving’s icon is the cornucopia, a symbol of the plenty of the harvest that gets us through the winter. As we do our acrostic today on the word “nature”, think of what you might put your cornucopia of praise in the center of the Thanksgiving table. N is for….., A is for….., T is for….., U is for……, R is for ….., and E is for……. Thank you Lord for your many blessings through the year and for giving us strength to face the rough days.
On the Way to Wonder 