God of Our Fathers, Whose Almighty Hand

(for Independence and other days)

1. God of our Fathers, Whose Almighty Hand

Leads forth in beauty all the starry band.

Of Shining worlds in splendor through the skies

Our grateful songs, before thy throne arise.

2. Thy Love divine hath led us in the past.

In this free land by thee our lot is cast.

Be Thou our ruler, guardian, guide, and stay.

Thy Word Our Law^, thy Paths our chosen ways*.

3. From wars alarms, from deadly pestilence,

Be thy Strong arm our ever sure defense*;

Thy true religion in our hearts increase,

Thy Bounteous goodness, nourish us in peace.

4. Refresh thy people on their toilsome way;

Lead us from night, to never ending day;

Fill all our lives, with love and grace^ divine*,

And glory, laud, and praise be ever Thine.

  ----Fr. Daniel C. Roberts, 1876; a priest in the Episcopal church, honoring our nation's centennial.

*I don't believe in trying to create "a Christian nation" here in America. We weren't told to create a theocracy in the New Testament.  But I am grateful that we live in a country where we can freely practice and share our faith.  I am hopeful and prayerful that neither the foolishness nor extremism on either the Right or the Left will ruin that for us here.

^While a nice enough hymn in its way, this hymn speaks nothing about grace & love actually coming from the suffering and death of Christ for our sins.

Fountain of Life

These pictures are from Fossil Creek in Northern Arizona.  The waterfall and pool make me think of "Cauldron Pool" in The Last Battle, Book 7 of "The Chronicles of Narnia."

---

from Psalm 36

Your love, O Yahweh, reaches to the heavens,
Your faithfulness to the clouds.
Your righteousness is like the mountains of God,
Your judgements are like the great deep.
You, O Yahweh, preserve both people and animals.
How priceless is your unfailing love, O God!
Humanity's children take refuge in the shadow of Your wings...
You give them drink from Your river of delights.
For with You is the fountain of life;
    in Your light we see light.

Oh, continue Your love to those who know You,
Your righteousness to the upright in heart.

(BTW, here is a picture of an interesting rock type I've never seen before:  thin sheets of granite "frozen" in lava!  All over the place at Fossil Creek, but no one who'd visited ever told me about this.)

From Old Narnia to New Narnia

[technically prose;  a reflection on the passage of time and of all things as this year draws to a close]

     "So," said Peter, "Night falls on Narnia.  [Narnia is destroyed; comes to an end.]  What, Lucy!  You're not crying?  With Aslan ahead and all of us here?"
     "Don't try to stop me, Peter, " said Lucy.  "I am sure Aslan would not.  I am sure it is not wrong to mourn for Narnia.  Think of all that lies dead and frozen behind that door."
     "Yes, and I did hope,"  said Jill, "that it might go on forever.  I knew our world couldn't.  I did think Narnia might."...

     "Peter, " said Lucy, "where is this, do you suppose?"
     "I don't know," said the High King.  "It reminds me of somewhere, but I can't give it a name.  Could it be somewhere we once stayed for a holiday when we were very, very small?"
     "It would have to have been a jolly good holiday," said Eustace.  "I bet there isn't a country like this anywhere in our world.  Look at the colours.  You couldn't get a blue like the blue on those mountains in our world."...
    "If you ask me, " said Edmund, "It's like somewhere in the Narnian world.  Look  at those mountains ahead... Surely they're rather like the mountains we used to see from Narnia, the ones up Westward beyond the Waterfall?"
     "Yes, so they are, "  said Peter.  "Only these are bigger."
      [They compare some of the other Narnian mountains to what they are seeing.]
     "And yet they're not like," said Lucy.  "They're different.  They have more colours on them and they look further away than I remembered and they're more...more...oh, I don't know..."
     "More like the real thing," said the Lord Digory softly...
     "Kings and Queens, " [Farsight the Eagle] cried, "we have all been blind.  We are only beginning to see where we are.  from up there I have seen it all---Ettinsmuir, Beaversdam, the Great River, and Cair Paravel still shining on the edge of the Eastern Sea.  Narnia is not dead.  This is Narnia."....
     "The Eagle is right, " said the Lord Digory.  "Listen Peter.  When Aslan said you could never go back to Narnia, he meant the Narnia you were thinking of.  But that was not the real Narnia.  That had a beginning and an end.  It was only a shadow or a copy of the real Narnia, which has always been here and always will be here...  You need not mourn over Narnia, Lucy.  All of the old Narnia that mattered, all the dear creatures, have been drawn into the real Narnia..."

     It is as hard to explain how this sunlit land was different from the old Narnia, as it would be to tell you how the fruits of that country taste...The new one was a deeper country: every rock and flower and blade of grass looked as if it meant more.  I can't describe it any better than that...
     It was the Unicorn who summed up what everyone was feeling.... "I have come home at last!  This is my real country.  I belong here.  This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now.  the reason why we loved the old Narnia is that is sometimes looked a little like this..."

     The light ahead was growing stronger.. And then she forgot everything else, because Aslan [the Great Lion] was coming, leaping down from cliff to cliff like a living cataract of power and beauty...Then Aslan turned to them [after talking to other creatures] and said:
     "You do not yet look so happy as I meant you to be."
     Lucy said, "We're so afraid of being sent away, Aslan.  And you have sent us back into our own world so often.
    "No fear of that," said Aslan.  "Have you not guessed?"
   Their hearts leaped, and a wild hope rose within them.
    [Aslan explains that they died in their own world.   That they and the  Pevensie parents have come out of the "Shadow-Lands" and will stay in the New Narnia forever.]
     And as He spoke, He no longer looked to them like a lion; but the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them...now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story, which on one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before."

--C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle.  (c) 1956

Joy to the World

(A paraphrase of Psalm 98, with images from the Sierra Nevada Mountains)
Joy to the world, the Lord is come!
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare Him room,
And Heaven and nature sing.



Yosemite Falls, Yosemite National Park

Joy to the earth, the Savior reigns!
Let men their songs employ;
While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains
Repeat the sounding joy.



Yosemite National Park

No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found.

He rules the world with truth and grace,
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness,
And wonders of His love.

Bridal Veil Falls, Yosemite

---Isaac Watts, 1719

It's Grand

Recent anniversary trip up to the Grand Canyon:

 

Elk

Scrub Jay

 

Mule Deer



 

 

 

Choreographed

Nature's singing me her song,
And around me is a dance:
      The sunlight on the water,
       The aspens' quaking leaves,
       The playful dragonflies,
        My own two happy feet.

 

My heart is filled with wild joy;
I know who wrote the song:
       He gave it melody
       And wove in harmony;
       He sets its steady rhythm
       And makes the whole world dance.

You hear the moments out-of-tune
When Nature's lost the harmony;
     But my Composer saved a better song
     To sing another place...
     Where melodies are never sad,
     And the only song is love.

                     
    ----C. Marie Byars; Ft. Jackson, SC; May, 1986
          [written with memories of the southwestern U.S. in mind]
 

Come Unto Me, You Weary

“Come unto Me, you weary,
And I will give you rest.”*
O blessèd voice of Jesus,
Which comes to hearts oppressed!
It tells of consolation,
Of pardon, grace and peace,
Of joy that has no ending,
Of love which cannot cease.
 
 "Come unto me, you wanderers, 
And I will give your light."
O loving voice of Jesus, 
Which comes to cheer the night!
Our hearts were filled with sadness, 
When we had lost our way;
But He has brought us gladness 
And songs at break of day.

"And anyone who comes forth, 
I will not cast him out."
O patient love of Jesus, 
Which drives away our doubt,
Which, though we be unworthy 
Of love so great and free,
Invites us very sinners 
To come as we may be!

--William C. Dix, ~1867; adapted c.m.b., 2014

Dix wrote of this hymn:

I was ill and de­pressed at the time, and it was al­most to idle away the hours that I wrote the hymn. I had been ill for ma­ny weeks and felt weary and faint, and the hymn real­ly ex­press­es the lan­guid­ness of bo­dy from which I was suf­fer­ing at the time. Soon af­ter its com­po­si­tion I re­cov­ered, and I al­ways look back to that hymn as the turn­ing point in my ill­ness.

*"[Jesus said]' 'Come unto Me, all you who are weary and heavily burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.'"  (Matthew 11:28-30)
 

Holy Saturday

 

 

O night that is brighter than day,
O night more dazzling than the sun,
O night more sparkling than fresh snow,
O night more brilliant than all our lamps!
O night that is sweeter than Paradise,...
O night delivered from darkness,
O night that dispels the sleep of sin,
O night that makes us keep vigil with the angels,
O night terrible for the demons,
O night desired by all the year,
O night that leads the bridal Church to her Spouse,
O night that is mother to those enlightened!
O night in which the Devil, sleeping, was despoiled,
O night in which the Heir brings the co-heirs to their heritage.

(Asterius of Pontus AD 341-400)

The Greatest Love

 

 

Christ of St. John of the Cross
 --Salvador Dali, 1951

 

Chief of Sinners, Though I Be

[For Valentine's Day &  Lent, 2013]

Chief of sinners though I be,
Jesus shed His blood for me*,
Died that I might live on high,
Lives that I might never die.
As the branch is to the Vine,
I am His and He is mine!

Oh, the height of Jesus' love,
Higher than the heav'ns above,
Deeper than the depths of sea,
Lasting as eternity,
Love that found me -- wondrous thought!
Found me when I sought him not...

Chief of sinners though I be,
Christ is all in all to me.
All my wants to him are known;
All my sorrows are His own.
Safe with him in earthly strife,
I await the heav'nly life.   ---William McComb (19th Century)

* "....Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief [foremost]."    ---St. Paul, from I Timothy 1:15 (NKJV)

Christ the Lord is Ris'n Today

Christ, the Lord, is risen today,
Sons of men and angels say.
Raise your joys and triumphs high!
Sing, ye heavens, and earth, reply!

Love's redeeming work is done,
Fought the fight, the battle won:
Lo! the Sun's eclipse* is over;
Lo! He sets in blood no more.

Vain the stone, the watch, the seal.
Christ hath burst the gates of hell.
Death in vain forbids His rise,
Christ hath opened paradise.

Lives again our glorious King!
Where, O death, is now thy sting?
Once He died our souls to save;
Where thy victory, O grave?**

Soar we now where Christ hath led,
Following our exalted Head.
Made like Him, like Him we rise;
Ours the cross, the grave, the skies.

Hail, the Lord of earth and heaven.
Praise to Thee by both be given.
Thee we greet triumphant now.
Hail, the resurrection day.

King of glory, Soul of bliss,
Everlasting life is this:
Thee to know, Thy power to prove;
Thus to sing and thus to love.
---Charles Wesley, 1708

*Sun in the Sky AND the Son of God. Malachi 4:2; Messiah is the Sun of Righteousness. At Jesus's crucifixion, the Sun was darkened (Luke 23:45). Romans 8:19-21; all creation awaits its renewal & redemption along with our bodies at the end of time.
**St. Paul in I Corinthians 15:55, quoting Hosea 13:14

Glory Be to Jesus

(Lent reflection)

Glory be to Jesus, Who, in bitter pains,

Poured for me the lifeblood From His sacred veins!

Grace and life eternal In that blood I find;

Blest be His compassion, Infinitely kind.

Oft as earth exulting Sends its praise on high,

Angel hosts, rejoicing,Make their glad reply.

Lift we then our voices,Swell the mighty flood;

Louder still and louder Praise the precious blood!

---At­trib­ut­ed to S. Al­fon­so, 18th century; adatped c.m.b., 2012

Love Divine

My lover is radiant and ruddy,
Outstanding among ten thousand [men].
His head is purest gold;
His hair is wavy, black as a raven.
His cheeks are like beds of spices,
[a garden] That produces fragrance.
His lips are lilies that drip with myrrh.
His arms are rods of gold,
Set with chrysolite.*
His chest is like polished ivory,
Set with sapphires.
His legs are pillars of marble,
Set on bases of pure gold...
His mouth is altogether sweet;
Everything about his is desirable.
This is my lover, This is my friend,
O daughters of Jerusalem.
---Song of Solomon** 5:10-11; 13-15a; 16

*A green semi-precious stone
**This book describes physical, human love between a couple but is also a picture of the intense love God has for His people.

Proof

That I did always love,
I bring thee proof:
That till I loved
I did not love enough.

That I shall love alway,
I offer thee
That love is life,
And life hath immortality.

This, dost thou doubt, sweet?
Then have I
Nothing to show
But Calvary.* ---Emily Dickinson
* The mountain where Jesus died.

Great Is Thy Faithfulness*

1."Great is Thy faithfulness," O God my Father,
There is no shadow of turning with Thee;
Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not
As Thou hast been Thou forever wilt be.

(Chorus) "Great is Thy faithfulness!" "Great is Thy faithfulness!"
Morning by morning new mercies I see;
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided—
"Great is Thy faithfulness," Lord, unto me!

2. Summer and winter, and springtime and harvest,
Sun, moon and stars in their courses above,
Join with all nature in manifold witness
To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.

3.Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth,
Thy own dear presence to cheer and to guide;
Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow,
Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!

---Thomas Obediah Chisholm, 1923

*Based on Lamentations 3:22-24: "Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness." (NIV)

Grand Canyon

Love Divine, All Love Excelling

Love divine, all loves excelling,
Joy of heaven to earth come down;
Fix in us thy humble dwelling;
All thy faithful mercies crown!
Jesus, Thou art all compassion,
Pure unbounded love Thou art;
Visit us with Thy salvation;
Enter every trembling heart.

Breathe, O breathe Thy loving Spirit,
Into every troubled breast!
Let us all in Thee inherit;
Let us find that second rest.
Take away our bent to sinning;
Alpha and Omega be;
End of faith, as its Beginning,
Set our hearts at liberty.

Come, Almighty to deliver,
Let us all Thy life receive;
Suddenly return and never,
Never more Thy temples leave.
Thee we would be always blessing,
Serve Thee as Thy hosts above,
Pray and praise Thee without ceasing,
Glory in Thy perfect love.

Finish, then, Thy new creation;
Pure and spotless let us be.
Let us see Thy great salvation
Perfectly restored in Thee;
Changed from glory into glory,
Till in heaven we take our place,
Till we cast our crowns before Thee,
Lost in wonder, love, and praise.
--- Charles Wesley, 1747
HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!

Beside Still Waters

The LORD [Yahweh] is my shepherd; 

I shall not [be in] want. 

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: 

He leadeth me beside the still waters.** 

He restoreth my soul: 

He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. 

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me; 

Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. 

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. 

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life:

and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever. 

----King David; Psalm 23 KJV* 

*I normally don't read the King James Version anymore, but the etched-in beauty of this older version captivated me. 

**Recently revisiting this Psalm (which, actually, is not my "favorite" of the Psalms, unlike many other people), I emphasized the "still waters" and "restoring my soul" because of some great, deep, long-sought but elusive peace which He recently brought to me & which I pray continues through the next leg of life's journey.

To Everything a Season

There is a time for everything,
And a season for every activity under heaven:

• A time to be born and a time to die;
• A time to plant and a time to uproot;
• A time to kill off forcefully and a time to heal;
• A time to tear down and a time to build;
• A time to weep and a time to laugh;
• A time to grieve and a time to dance;
• A time to scatter stones about and a time to gather them up;
• A time to embrace and a time to hold back;
• A time to search and a time to abandon search;
• A time to keep and a time to discard;
• A time to tear and a time to mend;
• A time to be silent and a time to speak
• A time to love and a time to hate*;
• A time for war and a time for peace....

[God] has made everything beautiful in its time.
He has also set eternity into the hearts of people,
Yet they cannot grasp what God has done
From beginning to end. --(King Solomon?); Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, 11
*We are called to truly hate what is evil or false; not to arbitrarily hate other people.