Good Monday Morning! It is the beginning of Thanksgiving week here in the United States...a week (day) set aside for giving thanks to God for all of His goodness and kindness and bountiful blessings. Of course, we should always give thanks to the Lord for all of His blessings and not wait for just one day or week of the year to do so...but I am glad that we do have this time designated to recognize our Creator God and all that He had done for us.
Our Pastor had a good message yesterday from Psalm 107.
And our choir sang a beautiful song (with a little help from the recorded background singers I must admit) entitled "Alleluia, Alleluia, Give Thanks to the Risen Lord."
You can hear and see it here:
Alleluia, alleluia, shout for joy loud and long
Alleluia, alleluia, sing to God a glorious new song.
Alleluia, alleluia! Give thanks to the risen Lord
Alleluia, alleluia! Give praise to his name!
Jesus is Lord of all the earth.
He is the King of creation.
Alleluia, alleluia! Give thanks for the risen Lord
Alleluia, alleluia! Give praise to his name!
Spread the good news o’er all the earth
Jesus has died and has risen.
We have been crucified with Christ
Now we shall live forever, forever.
Come let us praise the living God
Joyfully sing to the Savior.
Alleluia, alleluia! Give thanks to the risen Lord
Alleluia, alleluia! Give praise to his name!
Alleluia, alleluia, sing to God a glorious new song.
Maybe while you are listening to the music you can enjoy these photos of flowers around my yard, taken yesterday afternoon. I was surprised to find these azaleas blooming:
And these pretty different kinds of mums from a leftover pot from last fall:
Another pretty yellow mum:
And this swamp sunflower from alongside the pond:
And the hollyberries ripe and ready and waiting for the birds to come. However, we really don't have as many berries as we did last year, and so far no sign of the Robins or Cedar Waxwings that devoured them in a few days last November. The squirrels have been enjoying these in the meantime:
I have been surprised to see the geranium plant still blooming on the front porch:
And the little pot of Penta is still blooming too:
All these flowers give thanks to God every day with their colorful smiling "faces" looking heavenward.
Also it was fun to see the Great Blue Heron back in Still Waters Pond yesterday afternoon. We haven't seen him in a while, and it was good to see him standing there like a statue in the evening sun, watching for some unsuspecting fish or frog to provide his dinner.
But perhaps the most fun of all was the offerings of praise from these Sand Hill Cranes early yesterday morning.
Please click on each of these two videos to get the full picture. In the first video they are dancing their dance of praise. Be sure to turn on the sound so you can hear them singing in the 2nd video:
Even though their voices are not very melodious, I believe they are singing their praises to their Creator. Maybe this is their rendition of:
"Alleluia, alleluia, shout for joy loud and long
Alleluia, alleluia, sing to God a glorious new song.
Alleluia, alleluia! Give thanks to the risen Lord
Alleluia, alleluia! Give praise to his name!"
Listen to what the Psalmist says in praise to our God:
Let All Things Praise the Lord
Psalm 150
"1 Praise the Lord!
Praise God in His sanctuary;
Praise Him in His mighty firmament!
2 Praise Him for His mighty acts;
Praise Him according to His excellent greatness!
3 Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet;
Praise Him with the lute and harp!
4 Praise Him with the timbrel and dance;
Praise Him with stringed instruments and flutes!
5 Praise Him with loud cymbals;
Praise Him with clashing cymbals!
6 Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord!"
Look around and see what you can hear and see singing and praising our Creator this week!
Happy Thanksgiving!
