Some of my favorite memories as a child are about the times I spent at our YMCA’s summer camp in northern Wisconsin. From swimming and boating, to great food and fun campfire programs, to trail rides on the camp’s horses, to catching frogs and toads, there was almost always something going on that I now look back on with fondness.
Some of my memories go back to Sunday mornings at the camp, when all the campers would gather at the outdoor chapel for a worship service (the Catholic campers were taken into town for mass, and the one Jewish counselor had the morning off!). Besides the beautiful, peaceful setting looking out through the trees to the lake below, there was one more thing that made those services special: my dad was worship leader and preacher.
Although he wasn’t an ordained minister, my dad was devout in his faith and always involved in some church or lay ministry. In fact, since the YMCA was in those days a lay Christian ministry, he saw the purpose of his work as implementing the organization’s purpose of furthering Christian values and building a Christian society. So, as our Y’s Youth Director, he would come to the camp on Sundays to see how things were going (and to check up on me?), and to lead the worship.
The one thing I remember most from those Sunday services was my dad’s choice of hymns, which always seemed to include the old hymn, This is My Father’s World.* It always inspired me, sitting surrounded by the beauty of nature, hearing birds, feeling the gentle breeze, and seeing the trees and shimmering lake down below. Add to that, the fact that my own father was up front leading the service, and you can see why even today I have such fond memories and an appreciation for that hymn. I still affirm that this is indeed my Father’s world.
But in what way is it my Father’s world, speaking as the song does, of God, being our heavenly Father?
- At the time, and for most of my life, the hymn has spoken to me of the natural world which God designed and created by his power. How beautiful his creation is, from mountains to oceans, to rivers and lakes; from trees and flowers to rocks; from sun and moon to stars; and most amazing, creatures from the small frogs I would catch at the camp, to the horses we rode, to the birds, and yes, even to the mosquitos we swatted. Everything in nature that shouted “God!” was praised in the hymn, which reminded us that this world is indeed a gift from God and from him alone. This world is from him and belongs to him. We just get to live in it.
Think of the ways God has reminded us of this fact. Genesis 1 recounts the creation of all things in the heavens and on earth by God, who sums up his work in verse 27: “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.” Psalm 8:3-4 says, “When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?” Romans 1:19 says, “For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.” Colossians 1:16 reminds us that by Christ, “all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.” Hebrews 3:4 says, “For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything.” Jeremiah 32:7 proclaims, “Ah, Sovereign Lord, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you.” There are more verses which proclaim God as Creator, but let me add this one more from psalm 90:2, “Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the whole world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.” This is truly our Father’s world as proclaimed in the first two verses of the hymn:
This is my Father’s world,
And to my listening ears
All nature sings, and round me rings
The music of the spheres.
This is my Father’s world:
I rest me in the thought
Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas–
His hand the wonders wrought.
This is my Father’s world:
The birds their carols raise,
The morning light, the lily white,
Declare their Maker’s praise.
This is my Father’s world:
He shines in all that’s fair;
In the rustling grass, I hear Him pass,
He speaks to me everywhere.
From both the affirmations of Scripture and my own senses, I have never doubted that God is real, that he is all wise and powerful, and that he is the Creator and Sustainer of everything that exists. This is my Father’s world – and universe.
2. But recently, I have had to look closer at the hymn’s third verse, which asserts that this is God’s world, regardless of its problems and challenges. With all the horrible things going on in the world, and especially now in our country, it would be very easy to think that everything is out of control, that our faith has lost the battle, and that the forces of evil have taken charge to remake everything in their own image. God’s commandments are thrown out, people look to the material world as all their is. As Carl Sagan put it, “The universe is all that is, ever was, or ever will be.” As Paul put it in Romans 1:25, “they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever!”
But no matter how discouraged we might be, or how dominant the anti-Christian forces seem to be these days, we must not forget the truth which the hymn proclaims in its third verse:
This is my Father’s world:
O let me ne’er forget
That though the wrong seems oft so strong,
God is the Ruler yet.
This is my Father’s world:
Why should my heart be sad?
The Lord is King: let the heavens ring!
God reigns; let earth be glad!
God alone raises up rulers and brings them down. He alone sets the time span for nations and empires, for the righteous and sinners alike. He is the sovereign, in-charge ruler over all. Though we don’t know his purposes in the events we see or the struggles we face, we must remain confident that in the end, God’s will, will be done on earth as it is in heaven. He will judge us all with perfect justice, so those who mock him will not prevail: “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.”(Galatians 6:7). And above all, God’s love and mercy will triumph over all (James 2:13b), for not only is he the all powerful Father, he also loves us more than even our earthly fathers can.
For that I am grateful, to my earthly father for his love and Christian testimony, and to my – our – heavenly Father for all he has done, and will yet do, in this, his world.
Now may the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace. Amen.
Read: Nehemiah 9:6; Isaiah 66:2; Revelation 4:11; Isaiah 45:18
*Public domain, written by Rev. Maltbie Davenport Babcock, published in 1901 as a poem, and in 1925 with the music.