This Is My Father's World

“This is my Father’s world, and to my listening ears

All nature sings and ‘round me rings, the music of the spheres.

This is my Father’s world, I rest me in the thought

Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas

His hand the wonders wrought.”

On my way to church this morning, I heard Jadon Lavik’s version of “This is My Father’s World”.  The words are just beautiful.  Maltbie Babcock wrote those words in the late 1800’s, but the hymn wasn’t published until after Maltbie’s death in 1901.   

Maltbie pastored a church in Lockport, New York; in Baltimore, Maryland; and in New York City.  When he lived in Lockport, which is near Niagara Falls, he often went running or hiking in the beautiful countryside.  He told his secretary there, “I’m going to see my Father’s world.”

We can learn so much from nature, can’t we?

1. God’s works (earth, sky, sea) praise His name.  They show a small glimpse His beauty.
2. It’s often a great reminder of how small we are.  God owns it all!  And He keeps it running – He needs nothing from us.

“I know every bird in the mountains, and the creatures of the field are mine.  If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world is mine and all that is in it.”  Psalm 50:11-12

And YET:  He does tell us things.  He speaks to us through His Word.  He shows us that He loves us.  But as beautiful as nature is, God’s beauty & love are best seen in Jesus.    

Maltbie understood that.  He recognized that nature was place to be in awe…and to let that awe take him to the throne of grace. 

Have you ever heard the rest of the lines of “This Is My Father’s World”?  I looked them up:

This is my Father’s world, the birds their carols raise,
The morning light, the lily white, declare their Maker’s praise.
This is my Father’s world: He shines in all that’s fair;
In the rustling grass I hear Him pass;
He speaks to me everywhere.

This is my Father’s world. O let me ne’er forget
That though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet.
This is my Father’s world: the battle is not done:
Jesus Who died shall be satisfied,
And earth and Heav’n be one.

This is my Father’s world, dreaming, I see His face.
I ope my eyes, and in glad surprise cry, “The Lord is in this place.”
This is my Father’s world, from the shining courts above,
The Beloved One, His Only Son,
Came—a pledge of deathless love.

This is my Father’s world, should my heart be ever sad?
The lord is King—let the heavens ring. God reigns—let the earth be glad.
This is my Father’s world. Now closer to Heaven bound,
For dear to God is the earth Christ trod.
No place but is holy ground.

This is my Father’s world. I walk a desert lone.
In a bush ablaze to my wondering gaze God makes His glory known.
This is my Father’s world, a wanderer I may roam
Whate’er my lot, it matters not,
My heart is still at home.

The beauty of nature often awakens our hearts to something bigger than ourselves.  Maltbie once said, “Life is what we are alive to.”

Oh, to be excited – to be made “alive” – by the person of Jesus Christ.  Is He what most awakens my heart?  Whatever my lot, I pray my heart will still be at home in Jesus.

My “lot” is pretty easy right now.  I sit in my house in North Carolina in safety.  Meanwhile, my brothers and sisters around the globe are dying for their faith as I type this.  I don’t know why I am sitting in safety while others are in danger. 

Although I don’t have all the answers, this I do know:  God is still on His throne.  The battle is not done.  Jesus who died will be satisfied. 

And sometimes, the cure for a hurting heart (or calloused heart) is to just go outside and sit under the stars.  Or hear the carols of the birds. Or see the beauty of the mountains.  Or experience the open expanse of the desert.

For this is My Father’s world.  And I can rest me in that thought.