Gift #916: Thanksgiving Hymn #1

And so Thanksgiving week is finally here.  This is probably my favorite holiday and I look forward to it so much.  I wanted to do something special to celebrate Thanksgiving – in the past we’ve done prayers, psalms, and this year I’ve decided to use songs.  Each day of Thanksgiving week I’ll post a new song and share some thoughts on how the lyrics have guided my heart in thankfulness. I hope it will be meaningful to you as well.  For many of these, I’ve only heard the first verse and it’s been a discovery to read the subsequent verses and rejoice in their depth of meaning.  Our first song of the week, For the Beauty of the Earth, by Folliot Pierpoint is a great example.  I had no idea there were so many verses – and they deal with a variety of topics.  Nature dominates the first couple of verses, but then the song turns to reflection on the joys of community, the church, and God Himself.

Giving thanks for the beauty in creation is one of the easiest ways for me to cultivate a grateful spirit.   It’s a very natural impulse to rejoice in what we can easily see.  When I’m feeling worried or irritable, I start listing off the things I can see or hear – thank you for the way the trees move in the wind, thank you for the green grass, thank you for the bird singing, thank you for the fluffy clouds… etc… and soon enough my heart is feeling lightened and I’m reassured again that the God who created all these miraculous details loves and knows me and will care for me.   I hope you will enjoy and be encouraged by the words of this hymn from 1864.

 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.

  For the beauty of each hour
of the day and of the night,
hill and vale, and tree and flower,
sun and moon, and stars of light;
Lord of all, to thee we raise
this our hymn of grateful praise.

For the joy of ear and eye,
for the heart and mind’s delight,
for the mystic harmony,
linking sense to sound and sight;
Lord of all, to thee we raise
this our hymn of grateful praise.

For the joy of human love,
brother, sister, parent, child,
friends on earth and friends above,
for all gentle thoughts and mild;
Lord of all, to thee we raise
this our hymn of grateful praise.

For thy church, that evermore
lifteth holy hands above,
offering up on every shore
her pure sacrifice of love;
Lord of all, to thee we raise
this our hymn of grateful praise.
 

For thyself, best Gift Divine,
to the world so freely given,
for that great, great love of thine,
peace on earth, and joy in heaven:
Lord of all, to thee we raise
this our hymn of grateful praise

Blessings to you,

Sarah