"For the Beauty of the Earth"

The following are a few verses of an old, old hymn that I ran across tonight. The words written long ago help describe what my heart was feeling a few weeks back as we enjoyed a family field trip to McKinney Falls State Park, near Austin. It was a delightful day as we picnicked together, hiked together and took in God's wonderful creation . . . together!

I hope you enjoy the hymn and the pictures . . .

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 sacrifice of praise.

For the beauty of each hour of the day and of the night,
hill and vale, and tree and flower, sun and moon, and stars of light,

For the joy of ear and eye, for the heart and brain's delight,
for the mystic harmony linking sense to sound and sight,

For the joy of human love, brother, sister, parent, child,
friends on earth, and friends above, for all gentle thoughts and mild,

For each perfect gift of thine to our race so freely given,
graces human and divine, flowers of earth and buds of heaven,

Christ our God, to thee we raise,
This our sacrifice of praise.

Words: Folliot Sandford Pierpoint, 1864

A "God sized" rock . . .

Would this be the opposite of hugging a tree?

Learning to skip stones . . .


Saving the scenes for later . . .



Back to my favorite part of the hymn --

For the joy of human love . . .


brother . . .

sister . . .

parent, child . . .


Christ our God, to thee we raise,
this our sacrifice of praise.

Blessings~

T~