Featured Hymn: January 1, 2013

"All Things Bright and Beautiful"

In his book on hymns, Albert Bailey writes of this particular one, “For once Mrs. Alexander has forgotten her theology and lost herself in the beauty of nature” (The Gospel in Hymns, 354). Many of us, if not all, have had these moments. Whether we’re in a park, on a mountain, at the sea or a lake, or simply driving down the highway with a glorious sunset behind us, it is not difficult to find ourselves lost in the beauty of God’s creation. These scenes should bring to mind Genesis 1:31: “And God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.” Albert Bailey is perhaps mistaken when he claims that Alexander forgot her theology in the writing of these verses. For when we are in the midst of God’s creation, are our ideas of who God is not being shaped by all that we see? God made a good creation, and He loves it. Our God is a good God, who gives us good things, and then tasks us with taking care of them. Our God is imaginative, and His creation is both whimsical and sometimes startlingly majestic. Let us lift our voices in praise to our maker, the creator of all things bright and beautiful.

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