"Praise the LORD from the earth, you great sea creatures and all the deeps, fire and hail, snow and mist, stormy wind fulfilling His word!" Psalm 148

"Praise the LORD from the earth, you great sea creatures and all the deeps, fire and hail, snow and mist (& rain!), stormy wind fulfilling His word! Mountains and hills, fruit trees and all cedars! Beasts and all livestock, creeping things and flying birds! ...Let them praise the name of the LORD, for his name alone is exalted; his majesty is above earth and heaven." Psalm 148: 7-10 & 13

Good morning, All! Do you love to sing? I'm sure your joyful noise is much more beautiful than mine! I learned something recently: plants & trees and grass & vines--every green and growing thing--sings as well. I suppose even poison ivy has a song! Scientists attach these tiny little sensors to plants, and the sensors produce the songs of the plants at a frequency we can hear. Without the sensors, we hear nothing of their songs. And the songs are beautiful! I wonder--are the songs as lovely in a dry, weary and dying plant as they are in fresh, young plants? Somehow, I think that perhaps when they are suffering, their song is the most beautiful of all--!

It is not a day to feel much like praising. But as you go about your day, notice especially the beauty of the world around you. The grey skies, the rain, the dead and ugly earth, just barely beginning to believe that life can come again--

Precious babies! Their little hands and fingers and toes, those precious eyelashes that flutter as they sleep; the view out your window; the trees and plants, your loved ones--God has given us many precious things in this life, and this whole world cries out in praise to him--and even the parts that are sin sick and dying cry praise to His beautiful, holy name. Yet just think--this world is but a shadow of our future glory. It is a shadow of what is to be, when it will appear whole and pure and holy and as we are made clean and pure and holy--

Through your tears, if there are tears today, bless and praise His name, like the plants and trees and all creation around you. And He will fill you with His peace.

Praying for you today.