A Thanksgiving-living Lay

Each autumn in the heart, a lay of gratitude is stirred...

For the kind generosity of mercy’s countless ways

For goodness we can taste and see and hear, hold and let go...

Heavens and earth spill a buffet of beauty, undeterred...

Each autumn in the heart, a lay of gratitude is stirred

Heavens and earth spill a buffet of beauty, undeterred

By oft thoughtless regard for He who deserves ceaseless praise

For the kind generosity of mercy’s countless ways

For goodness we can taste and see and hear, hold and let go

For blessings poured abundantly that we will never know

For all that makes us laugh and sing and dance and pray and weep

Because true love is bound to bring sorrows that run soul-deep

To teach far-too-forgetful, far-too-hurried/worried you and I

To be more humbly grateful in our manner of reply

To the Giver of ev’ry day whose lavish grace and love

Sustains a bountiful array, far over-and-above

What we can think to ask; exceeding our wildest ken

With Benefit that He may mask in seeming loss/suffering; Amen

As seasons ebb and overflow our hearts with thankfulness

As autumn casts its golden glow through woodland’s auburn tress

As we with wonderment behold the heavens’ welkin span

And echo, like David of old, dumbfounded ‘what is man'

That you are mindful of us still, and crown us with the spoil

Of the Creator’s perfect will, to worship while we toil

And care for the work of your hands; the flocks, the herds, the beasts

The offspring of Thy first commands of ‘let-there-be’ laid feasts

Of the birds of the air, of all that swims, flies, leaps and grows

To kindle in our prayer a madrigal of gaping prose

An uncurbed surge of utter bliss no words can quite construe

For the God who made/gave all of this is mankind’s Saviour too

He bore our debt of sin and shame; He died and rose again

Lord, how majestic is Your name in Heav’n and earth. Amen

Then, as we bow before You, Lord on this Thanksgiving Day

As our gladness is outpoured in grateful lay, we pray

That this is not a one-day hymn we piously extend

But a long, ceaseless song we sing forever without end

A humble, holy, heartfelt cry of gratitude unfurled

To honour and to glorify the Saviour of the world

Who, without partiality, will pardon me and you

Then surely thanksgiving must be repentance, meek and true

For who besides God can forgive, and break the curse sin wrought

And who but God can help us live and love the way we ought

And who but God grants treasures that surpass Time's finite wink

And promises us pleasures beyond what mortal can think 

And who but God has loved like this; He forgives us and then

Showers us, undeserved, with His kind faithfulness. Amen

Janet Martin

My grandchildren invited me to come with them on their hike today.

It was my pleasure and honour!

Happy, Happy Thanks-living!! 

Rom.11:33-36

Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom

 and knowledge of God!

How unsearchable his judgments,

and his paths beyond tracing out!

 “Who has known the mind of the Lord?

Or who has been his counselor?”

“Who has ever given to God,

that God should repay them?”

For from him 

and through him 

and for him 

are all things.

To him be the glory forever!

 Amen.

CityAlight - Only A Holy God