– Vickie Ripley, PharmD, Director of Music & Worship and Lay Leader
The song This is my Father’s World, tell us about God’s creation – all nature sings and round me rings the music of the spheres. We sing about rocks and trees, and skies and seas, the birds who raise their carols, the morning light, the lily white, they all declare their Maker’s praise. This is hymn # 144 in our United Methodist hymnbook.
I was reminded of this song recently when I noticed the crape myrtles blooming – and they are so pretty this year. They bloom in white, purples, pinks and even as their flowers begin to drop, the ground underneath is beautiful. God’s creation is magnificent and we are so grateful to live in a place that we can fully appreciate nature in all its glory. Something has been blooming here since February and I do enjoy seeing it.
God is present in all His creation. The creation stories in Genesis are amazing. In Luke 19: 40, Jesus tells us that even the stones will cry out who he is. In Psalm 8, the psalmist sings, “When I look at the heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and stars which you have established, what are human being that you are mindful of them, and mortals that you are mindful of them? Yet, you have made them a little less than God, and crowned them with glory and honor.”
Even understanding at least some of the science of all this beauty does not diminish its wonder and majesty. I encourage everyone to spend some time outside, to pause in our busy lives and to really look at the signs of, and really listen to the sounds of nature and remember that the creator of all this knows each of us – and we know Him.
Glory to God! Amen!