a song of gratitude

There are moments this week when I am alone and silent and suddenly I am overwhelmed with gratitude of what I've experienced these past two weeks.

It comes suddenly and quickly overwhelms. A sudden gushing of thankfulness.

The faces of people and their hearts, the places we've seen and the words we've heard all pass through my heart in quick fashion and it takes my breath away. All I am left with is a breathless gratitude and my small words of thankfulness aimed towards heaven are all I can manage.

So, tonight I shall use Mr.Rauschenbusch's words:

O God, we thank you for this earth, our home;
For the wide sky and the blessed sun,
For the salt sea and the running water,
For the everlasting hills
And the never-resting winds,
For trees and the common grass underfoot.
We thank you for our senses
By which we hear the songs of birds,
And see the splendor of the summer fields,
And taste of the autumn fruits,
And rejoice in the feel of the snow,
And smell the breath of the spring.
Grant us a heart wide open to all this beauty;
And save our souls from being so blind
That we pass unseeing
When even the common thornbush
Is aflame with your glory,
O God our creator,
Who lives and reigns for ever and ever.

(Walter Rauschenbusch)

Night.