To wash the taste of the news out of my soul:
This is my Father’s world! O let me ne’er forget
That tho’ the wrong seems oft so strong,
God is the ruler yet. Amen!
And there are an awful lot of powerful and influential people today who are gonna have to do some mighty fast talkin’, come the Judgment…
No one has requested any hymns yet today, so let me go one of my own favorites, This Is My Father’s World–here performed as a “piano meditation” by Rick Betts, with satellite photos of our world, the work of God’s hands.
This verse, in particular, remember:
This is my Father’s world, and let me ne’er forget
That though the wrong seems oft so strong,
God is the ruler yet.
I don’t know about you, but I could use a hymn, right about now. This hymn, in fact–This Is My Father’s World.
It does not belong to the ungodly. It doesn’t even belong to God’s people. It belongs to the Father who created it, who created us, and who sent his Son into the world to save us from our sins and win for us eternal life.
Sit back and listen.
I wish I knew how to take my own pictures and post them on this blog. I would’ve had something very fine for you today.
Today we have a dark, rainy, windy day, but I had occasion to go out in it. And as I was driving home from the store, I saw something which moved me to cry out, “Oh! Oh, beautiful!”
They were nothing out of the ordinary–just red maple trees. But during the week that had passed since I last went that way, they’d all been dressed in their full fall foliage, bright crimson, interspersed with a few trees now wearing gold. Their beauty took me utterly by surprise, as if I were seeing them for the very first time.
That’s when it’s a good time to say a prayer of praise and thanksgiving. Who but God the Creator could have painted this scene? And here it was given to me, an unexpected gift.
“For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead…” (Romans i:20)
We can’t see the invisible things of God, but we can see His handiwork, His art: it’s all around us, everywhere we look.
This is indeed my Father’s world.
The heavens proclaim the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork.
This is one of those ancient hymns you learn in Sunday school–if they’re not too busy bull-riding in your church–and never forget. The video is performed by Fernando Ortega. Here are the lyrics’
This is my Father’s world, and to my listening ears
All nature sings, and round me rings the music of the spheres.
This is my Father’s world: I rest me in the thought
Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas; his hand the wonders wrought.
This is my Father’s world, the birds their carols raise,
The morning light, the lily white, declare their maker’s praise.
This is my Father’s world: he shines in all that’s fair;
In the rustling grass I hear him pass; he speaks to me everywhere.
Pay special attention to this last verse–words we need to hear.
This is my Father’s world, O let me ne’er forget
That though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet.
This is my father’s world; why should my heart be sad?
The Lord is King; let the heavens ring!
God reigns; let the earth be glad!
There has never been a time, in my lifetime, when the wrong ever seemed so strong as it seems today. But God is the ruler yet: all the wonderful works of His hands, which we see everywhere, declare to us: “God is nigh.”