who tenderly shapes and sustains us:
O praise and glorify our God
whose love tenderly nourishes us forever!
You constellations, meteor showers, and galaxies; sun and moon and clouds,
Sparkling Milky Way dancing overhead in velvet night:
give to your Creator your thanks and praise.
Father of Waters, rivers and streams, prairie, glade, and grassland,
Wetlands and forest, karst and cavern, limestone and chert:
give to your Creator your thanks and praise.
Shortleaf pine, pawpaw and hickory, canoe birch and cypress,
Redbud and dogwood blazing pink and white in spring joy:
give to your Creator your thanks and praise.
Sweet flag and cranesbill; brittle and crested shield ferns,
Dogtooth and birdsfoot violets carpeting the ground in beauty:
give to your Creator your thanks and praise.
Big Bluestem, foxglove and bluebells nodding in wind-kissed woods,
Little star moss, chantarelles and morels hidden like treasure underfoot:
give to your Creator your thanks and praise.
Sapsuckers and screech owls, kestrels and turkey vultures tracing the sky,
Waxwings in cedars, indigo buntings flashing electric blue:
give to your Creator your thanks and praise.
Swallowtails and monarchs, tiger moths and sulphurs warming your wings in sunlight,
Commas and fritillaries nectaring in coneflower fields, bats wheeling at dusk:
give to your Creator your thanks and praise.
Crayfish and mussel; painted mudbug, hellbender and harlequin darter shyly hiding,
Bluegill and bowfin; mudpuppy and milksnake; spring peeper and bullfrog dueting:
give to your Creator your thanks and praise.
Bobcat and coyote; mink, muskrat, and red-eared slider in sheltering riverbank,
Red fox and opossum, white-tailed deer leaping ravines:
give to your Creator your thanks and praise.
Children of the Middle Waters, Illiniwek, O-Gah-Pah, Jiwere, and Nutachi,
Farmers and businesspeople; parents and children; kindred united in this beautiful land
give to your Creator your thanks and praise.
Let all who breathe and live and turn their faces to the sun bless our Creator,
Whose wisdom weaves us together as one family,
Joined together in mutual gratitude and sustenance:
O praise and glorify our God
whose love tenderly nourishes us forever!
This was first published at Episcopal Journal and Cafe's Speaking to the Soul, November 10, 2022.
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