Two Happy Songs

At church this morning our pastor read the following announcement:

With all the sadness and trauma going on in the world at the moment, it is worth reflecting on the death of a very important person, which almost went unnoticed last week. Larry LaPrise, the man that wrote "The Hokey Pokey" died peacefully at the age of 93. The most traumatic part for his family was getting him into the coffin. They put his left leg in. And then the trouble started.

Internet research shows a discrepancy about PaPrise’s age and date of death but here is a link to his famous dance tune: http://www.niehs.nih.gov/kids/lyrics/hokey.htm

Another happy song ran through my head a lot yesterday:

All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful:
The Lord God made them all…

He gave us eyes to see them,
And lips that we might tell
How great is God Almighty,
Who has made all things well.

Saturday the words to this old hymn occurred to me several times as Ginny and I enjoyed the wonders of God’s world found in our own yard.

Actually, our encounter with nature began before we even went out to work in the yard. We saw a large house spider underneath my desk where all those wires from computer stuff hang down; you know, power cable, two surge protectors, mouse, keyboard, monitor cord, wires for desk lamp, scanner, microphone, two speakers, router, and for all I know a microwave and hair dryer. Donald installed all this stuff and I have no idea what wire goes where.

Anyhow, this poor spider seemed to think this tangle was a giant web and scuttled from wire to wire looking for a moose or something caught in the wire web. It was really funny to see the perplexed creature.

We decided to clean out our front flower beds and again we encountered God’s creatures going about their business with intent purpose:

• We watched a father cardinal feed seeds to a raucous baby bird nearly as big as himself.
• We uncovered earthworms as we dug up flowers to transplant.
• We squished all kinds of bugs.
• We saw a field mouse sitting on a log munching a sunflower seed fallen from a birdfeeder.
• A hawk eyed us as we pruned an oak branch.
• A squirrel couple in love frolicked beneath the porch swing.
• And a huge white crane, largest I’ve ever seen, landed in the neighbor’s backyard intimidating Felony, the pit bull, who stood in awe of this bird which stood close to six feet tall.

Yes, the Lord created all sorts of creatures to inhabit the earth and not one of them, except man, has ever sinned.

St. Francis said, “Try to realize the dignity God has conferred on you. He created and formed your body in the image of His Beloved Son, and your soul in his own likeness. Yet every creature under heaven serves, acknowledges and obeys its Creator in its own way better than you do.”

What a shame!

But, as our pastor said in church this morning, “The name Jesus means God Saves, or God Heals, or God Makes Whole. While God created us out of nothing, the Resurrection is a new demonstration of God’s power. Jesus is the expiation of our sins. The old word was propitiation but to make it clearer they changed it to expiation! That’s a real help! What it boils down to is that Jesus covers it, that He takes care of it. The love of God is shown toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”.

What a joy!

If you’d like to see all the words to “All Things Bright And Beautiful, they can be found at http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/a/l/allthing.htm … but I was not able to make the music play! Satan invented computers just to frustrate humanity – especially me.