Slideshow image

Don’t you just love the great hymns of Thanksgiving?  I cannot help but write about this fabulous hymn, “Let All Things Now Living.”  This hymn was written by Katherine Davis in 1939.  She also wrote “The Little Drummer Boy.” Let all things now living a song of thanksgivingTo God the creator triumphantly raise.Who fashioned and made us, protected and stayed us,Who still guides us on to the end of our days.God's banners are o'er us, His light goes before us,A pillar of fire shining forth in the night.Till shadows have vanished and darkness is banishedAs forward we travel from light into light.His law he enforces, the stars in their coursesAnd sun in its orbit obediently shine;The hills and the mountains, the rivers and fountains,The deeps of the ocean proclaim him divine.We too should be voicing our love and rejoicing;With glad adoration a Song let us raiseTill all things now living unite in thanksgiving:"To God in the highest, Hosanna and praise!" The Bible tells us God has a special relationship with the animals.  He created them.  He provides for them.  He watches over them. What is more, these creatures honor their Creator God.  So for example in Psalm 148 we read, “7  Praise the LORD from the earth,you great sea creatures and all deeps,and10 Beasts and all livestock,creeping things and flying birds!In Psalm 150 we read,6  Let everything that has breath praise the LORD!Praise the LORD!  The breathtaking exuberance the Bible describes the animals praising God.” God has a special relationship with the animals he created.  What is more, in the age to come animals will be with us and dwell in peace and harmony with humankind and one another.  So we read in Isaiah, “The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them.”(11:6)   “And “The wolf and the lamb shall graze together; the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be the serpent’s food. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain,” says the LORD.”(Is 65:25) Not only this, but the Bible indicates all of nature will praise God.  For example the waves that crash at the shore.  Also the trees of the wood shall “clap their hands.” Imagine when God’s kingdom has come, the chorus of praise pouring out from the church and from everything God has made.  That day is coming!  Let us pray.  “Heavenly Father, you made all things well. You looked out at your creation in the beginning and behold, it was good.  You made us and put us in this magnificent place.  Help us to take good care of it and most of all to offer up our praise and thanksgiving to you for it.  Lord, hasten the day when you will establish your final kingdom at last, sending Jesus again to claim us and gather the church to himself forever.  Till that day comes, may we be found to be loving you and our neighbors as ourselves.  We ask it in Jesus’ name.  Amen.”