We continue to live in difficult times. These times can bring worry, frustration and stress.
At times, even listening to the daily news can increase our negative feelings. It seems as if so much is so wrong.
Then, we can go outside to take a walk or to work in our yards. The leaves are turning into various colours and the days feel golden.
It is a good time to enjoy the beauty of nature and to connect with it. It is also worthwhile to take time to enter into the beauty of music, the arts, the crafts and good writing. Experiencing beauty helps us keep a balance in our lives, to stay sane and to experience joy. It helps us to enter into God's enjoyment of His creation, which He declared to be good.
"The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament soweth his handywork" (Psalm 19:1).
At this time of year, we will be celebrating harvest and Thanksgiving.
As part of our celebrations, we will be singing hymns celebrating the beauty that surrounds us. We will raise our hymns of praise for the beauty of the earth and all that is good in life. We will celebrate all that God has created. We will gain hope and strength from the fact that this our Father's world.
Don E. Saliers, Chaplain of the American Guild of Organists, wrote in the September 2020 issue of The American Organist Magazine this thought: “Discovering beauty in art, nature and in one another is precisely where our struggles, personal and social, can be reconfigured. Good art can lead us to a heightened perception of what is most real. Perhaps beauty practised in everyday life can even heal us of our false selves. Perhaps the pursuit of beauty in its many forms can lead us to what is dearest and most necessary for human wholeness. Sing again, For the Beauty of the Earth."
