Hymn #159 in Celebrating Grace Hymnal — “Fairest Lord Jesus”
[pullquote_center width=”62%”]Fair are the meadows, fairer still the woodlands,
Robed in the blooming garb of spring:
Jesus is fairer, Jesus is purer,
Who makes the woeful heart to sing.[/pullquote_center]
Beautiful. What comes to mind for you when you hear that word? For me, nature is one of the first things I think of, in any kind of weather. I love stormy dark skies, snow-covered hills, rushing water, autumn leaves, bare winter branches in frigid air, and trees and flowers in bud or bloom. Nature humbles me with its beauty, and points my thoughts toward a God creative enough to think all this up. Beauty being created out of beauty, I know that there is great loveliness at the heart of God. And this beauty of God, expressed in Jesus, is somehow fairer than “woodlands, robed in the blooming garb of spring.”
Thank you, God, for showing us glimpses of your beauty in the spectacle of nature, and for the beauty of the words that bring this nature to mind.