For the beauty of the earth
For the glory of the skies
For the love which from our birth
Over and around us lies.
Lord of all to thee we raise
This our hymn of grateful praise.
I'm getting a little tired of winter – but not the winter you are used to right now. In southern California, the season is one long stretch of sunny days and, oh, how I miss the cold, wet winters back in my home state of Maryland.
I’ve been bugging my husband, Ken, to drive me up, please drive me up to Lone Pine, California… that’s a little town on the edge of the high desert near the base of the snowy Sierra Mountains. The road is one long straight line and you can see the town of Lone Pine long before you come to it. When you drive through it, it’s just a couple of Victorian houses, a few stop lights, and a corner café called BoBo’s Bonanza. But the highlight is just stopping and looking at that just awesome view of the towering Sierras. The town is right where Mt. Whitney is located, just looming above all the other mountains around it. You sit there and you feel that ice cold draft down from the foothills – they call them the Alabama Hills right in front of the Sierras – I tell you that air can take your breath away. Oh, I love it. It’s so beautiful, so crisp and clear, so different from southern California.
I guess I'm longing for the beauty of the earth, as today’s hymn today suggests. I'm longin’ for a change of seasons. And just like I'm wishing for snow, you are most likely pining for a sunny day. How good of God to make us such seasonal people, right? I mean, how good of the Lord to keep us enthralled with the variety of our beautiful earth. We enjoy change, and having been imprinted with the image of our Creator, we cannot help but love diversity. God has set eternity in our hearts and we simply enjoy change, especially the change of seasons.
So, friend, hang in there until spring. I may get my drive up to Lone Pine before the snow melts off the peaks. And you may see warmer, sunnier days on your horizon. There’s a time for everything, and God promises that your days – your part of the earth – will be beautiful… in His time.
Used by permission of
JONI AND FRIENDS
P.O. Box 3333
Agoura Hills, CA 93176
©Joni and Friends