Love the Lord your God, listen to His voice and hold fast to Him, for the Lord is your life! Deut. 30:20


Wednesday, May 13, 2009

My Father's World

I love to look at nature - at God's beautiful creation!
I just have to show off His glory!

"...For the world is Mine, and all its fullness"
Psalm 50:12b

The baby robins are wanting some food.







This is called Papyrus.
Do you suppose it is like the papyrus that
was used in ancient days to make "paper"?

I was told this is called "Bad Hair Day". Ha!


paddle plant






Hoping to keep slugs away this year!




Al got another pole - a stronger one.

The purple martins are happy.

Looking at the beauty of nature made me think of the song "This is My Father's World." I have a wonderful book, "Then Sings My Soul" by Robert J. Morgan. In this book, you can look up a hymn and along with the hymn, there is the story of the origins of how the hymn came to be. I looked up the above hymn.

It was written by a man named Maltbie Babcock (ok, young moms. How about that for a name??) Maltbie was from an aristocratic family and a brilliant scholar with a winning personality. He was handsome, an outstanding athlete, played several instruments and even directed the Syracuse University orchestra. He composed several compositions, enjoyed drawing and was a proficient vocalist. Although he could have been successful in any profession, God called him to the ministry. So he went to Auburn Theological Seminary and then became a pastor. His first pastorate was in Lockport, New York. It was a beautiful area, located not far away from Niagara Falls. Maltbie enjoyed hiking and running in those hills outside town. He would tell his secretary "I'm going out to see my Father's world." Sometime during those years, he wrote a sixteen stanza poem. Each verse began with the words "This is My Father's World". When he was 42, his church gave him a special gift - a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. While enroute, however, at Naples, Italy he was seized with a deadly bacterial fever and died at the International Hospital in 1901. After his death, his wife compiled his writings and included was this hymn.


I had to include this picture of Sophia. She picked a dandelion and was so happy with it...until the yellow flower fell off. She tried in vain to make it stick back onto the stem. She was so sad.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

OK...
I have a brown thumb.
HORRIBLY brown.
I am a *little* jeaolous of the green thumb that God has blessed so many of my friends with.
Please - tell me that you didn't have such lovely gardens when the children were little??? Then there will be hope for me - someday...
Oh, BTW - what is the purple daisy-looking flower? I love it!

Beki - TheRustedChain said...

My goodness, such eye candy!

The Sieberts said...

Ava is OBSESSED with picking dandelions! we can't go on a walk without her stopping dozens of times. she even picks our neighbors'!

Allen and Debby Graber said...

Tami, I did NOT have a green thumb when my kids were little. I killed everything, seemed like. When my kids all were in school and we lived at Quail Creek, I began planting some and have done more and more through the years. I still feel like a novice compared to friends who know so much about plants. Googling plant care helps a lot. It also costs money to do flower gardens and when the kids were little, Al wasn't making much and we were still paying off all those school loans. Being empty nesters helps - we aren't so tight financially - and also I have time to work in the gardens. The purple daisy plants are Asti Lavender shade Osteospermum. You can find them almost anywhere. I love them and plant them every year. Too bad they aren't perennials and come up year after year.