THE WONDERFUL WORKS OF YOUR HANDS
How wonderful, O Lord, are the works of Your hands!
The heavens declare Your glory;
The arch of sky displays Your handiwork.
In Your love you have given us the power
To behold the beauty of Your world
Robed in all its splendor.
The sun and stars, the valleys and hills,
The rivers and lakes all disclose Your presence.
The roaring breakers of the sea tell of Your awesome might;
The beasts of the field and the birds of the air
Bespeak Your wondrous will.
In Your goodness, You have made us able to hear
The music of the world.
The voices of loved ones.
Reveal to us that You are in our midst.
A divine voice sings through all creation.
AUTHOR UNKNOWN
Quoted in “Treasury of Prayer
O God, creator of all, Your world is a magnificent work of art. You display Your glorious nature in all You have fashioned. Man can engineer amazing constructions like the Eiffel Tower or the Notre Dame Cathedral, yet You alone create the unique animals which roam the earth or the vibrant flowers and trees which cover the ground.
Thank You for the privilege of experiencing a different corner of Your creation as we traveled in Europe last month.
Thank you for blessing me with the senses to experience the wonders You have designed:
For the gift of sight–to view the colorful explosion of yellow, red, pink, orange, and purple tulips growing in the fields of Holland.
For the gift of hearing–to enjoy the variety of birds singing, chirping, squawking, and screeching as they flew overhead and all around the bird sanctuary we visited.
For the gift of taste–to savor the bright red juicy strawberries locally grown and so worth the wait in line to purchase them.
For the gift of smell–to inhale the fragrant perfume of tulip fields scattered across the Holland countryside.
For the gift of touch–to snuggle and kiss and hug my grandchildren who live so far away in Belgium.
Thank You, too, for the beauty of Your world here in Illinois. For the wispy clouds dancing in the blue sky above, for the tiny birds singing so cheerfully in my apple tree, for the quarrelling squirrels who race along my fence, for the baby geese who totter after their parents along the Fox River. Your world everywhere truly reflects Your glory!
In the name of the one who spoke this beautiful world into existence,
Amen.
For further prayer and meditation:
“For the Beauty of the Earth,” composed by Conrad Kocher, lyrics by Folliot S. Pierpoint
(in God’s amazing provision, this video even has tulips fields, unfortunately without the wondrous smells!)
“O God, we thank You for this earth, our home; for the wide sky and the blessed sun; for the salt sea and the running water; for the everlasting hills and the never resting winds; for trees and the common grass underfoot.
We thank You for our senses by which we hear the songs of birds, and see the splendour of the summer fields and taste of the autumn fruits and rejoice in the feel of the snow and smell the breath of the spring.
Grant us a heart wide open to all this beauty; and save our souls from being so blind that we pass unseeing when even the common thornbush is aflame with Your glory, O God our creator, who lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen.”
By Walter Rauschenbush, quoted in “Treasury of Prayer”
