My Heart is Still at Home

Ever have those weeks when the world seems to be just spinning completely out of control?  The last few weeks have been filled with one death after another, cancer diagnoses and hospice admissions for people we care deeply about, and a host of other concerns.  Our hearts are just so burdened at times that it feels like they would burst.

Yesterday I realized I needed a simple offertory for this morning in the absence of Rachel, our usual pianist. As I flipped through the hymnal, this hymn caught my eye.  The words stuck in my mind and have cycled through over and over in the intervening hours.

This is my Father's world!  No matter how out of control things seem, no matter how deeply we may be grieving, not matter how anxious our hearts may become...He is in control, and our hearts can be at home.

Creation reminds us of His glory in the most wonderful of times, and in the darkest.  I am so thankful for those visual reminders when my mind just doesn't seem to be able to process much else.

It is said that Maltbie Babcock was inspired to write the words of this hymn by the hikes he would take in "The Escarpment", a beautiful area of New York.  As he would leave to walk, he would say, "I'm going out to see my Father's world."  I love that!

But what an incredible thought is this (from my Facebook status earlier this week):

Beautiful cool breeze in my backyard this morning, a massive bird choir singing their hearts out, Hadyn's "The Heavens Are Telling the Glory of God" playing through my head (and remembering my dad "directing" as it played on the stereo *so* many times over the years :))...couldn't help but think of Bro. Gary's sermon last night on Psalm 19. It's amazing to think that while creation declares the glory of God in such awesome ways...creation is flawed, left imperfect by the fall. God's Word, however, is the perfect and sufficient revelation of God to man. *That* is awesome truth.

So thankful for His creation that shows His glory in such obvious, unmistakeable ways.  So thankful for His Word, that gives us perfect and sufficient truth.  And so thankful that this is my Father's world, and that there is rest and peace in the midst of the swirling storms of life.

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