October 10, 2020 (Saturday)
One of our greatest hymns (All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name) offers this verse:
Let every kindred, every tribe,
On this terrestrial ball,
To Him all majesty ascribe,
And crown Him Lord of all.
When I read this verse today, the words, “this terrestial ball,” which describe the earth as it moves through space, jumped out at me.
This house in which I am sitting and writing, is built on land. If I could suddenly somehow fly, I could look down on this house. Flying higher, I would see that the land on which it sits is a peninsula, surrounded by water on three sides, and connected to land that joins North America and sits above South America. It is a ball in space! And here I sit, rarely thinking about this awesome situation that places all mankind on land surrounded by the seas, whirling completely around once every twenty-four hours and circling the sun every three hundred sixty-five days. No, this is not a slide show of a solar system; this is where every human being who exists right now is located. This is us. This is where we live.
This Is My Father’s World
Words, Maltbie Babcock
Music, C. Barny Robertson
1901
This is my father’s world
And to my listening ears
All nature sings, and round me rings
The music of the spheres
This is my father’s world
The birds their carols raise
The morning light, the lily white
Declare their maker’s praise
This is my father’s world
I rest me in the thought
Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas
His hand the wonders wrought
This is my father’s world
Oh, let me never forget
That though the wrong seems oft so strong
God is the ruler yet
This is my father’s world
Why should my heart be sad?
The Lord is king, let the heavens ring
God reigns, let the earth be glad
This is my father’s world
He shines in all that’s fair
In the rustling grass, I hear him pass
He speaks to me everywhere
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