For the Beauty of the Earth

Strength for the Journey
September 1, 2010

“For the Beauty of the earth, for the beauty of the skies, for the love which from our birth over and around us lies, Christ our God, to thee we raise this our hymn of grateful praise.”

This past weekend, a friend, formerly of Wetumpka and now living in Ohio, spent the weekend with Lynn and me. We spent most of our time outdoors in the beauty of Alabama and Elmore County. As I reflected on the weekend and on our time outdoors Alabama, the words of this hymn came to mind. The words to the hymn were written toward the end of the 19th Century by Folliot Sandford Pierpoint, and I believe describe outdoors Alabama very well.

On Friday, our friend, Chris, and I kayaked the Coosa River. We saw only six other people, the breeze was gentle and the hardwoods along the bank were beginning to change colors. Chris and I spoke only a dozen sentences or so the whole day, so absorbed were we in the breeze and light, the water and trees around us. On Sunday afternoon after church and lunch with friends, the three of us sat on our dock on Lake Jordan reading books, chatting (in person, not on a phone) and floating in the lake. Again, the beauty was not just visual, but required all of our senses to take it in.

There is so much beauty in our lives that can remind us of God’s love for us—“for the love which from our birth over and around us lies”—but we are often so busy or stressed to see, feel, hear or taste it. It is often only when friends (one of God’s other gifts to us) come that we slow down long enough to experience this beauty. After my experience this past weekend, I want to encourage, even challenge, you to join me in experiencing the beauty around us and to invite others to share with us in enjoying this beauty. Like God’s love, the beauty is always here, and like God’s love, we sometimes miss it.

I will let the writer of our hymn sum up my feelings on this subject with the third and fourth verses of “For the Beauty of the Earth.”

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

Blessings,
The Rev. Ben Alford
Trinity Episcopal Church