The beautiful and familiar hymn, For the Beauty of the Earth, was penned in Bath, England, on a late spring day in 1864. It might just as easily have been written to celebrate the beauty of Fall in Cohasset – then or now. The beauty and bounty of God’s creation is not constrained by time or place. It is ever-changing and yet constant; an in-the-moment experience we return to again and again. Always different yet somehow the same. Familiar. Inspiring. Joy-giving. Worthy of care and celebration.
Have you ever played the game in which a statement is made and then repeated with a simple substitution? Try this: The beauty and bounty of Christ’s church is not constrained by time or place. It is ever-changing and yet constant; an in-the-moment experience we return to again and again. Always different yet somehow the same. Familiar. Inspiring. Joy-giving. Worthy of care and celebration.
Think about it.
For the beauty of the earth, for the splendor of the skies,
For the love which from our birth, over and around us lies,
God of all, to you we raise this our hymn of grateful praise.
Folliott S. Pierpont