Monday, November 20, 2017

Thankful for the Grandeur

Quick Watercolor Sketch

God's Grandeur

The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed.  Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell:  the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward springs---
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah!  bright wings.

---Gerard Manley Hopkins
1844 - 1889

For all the wonderful grandness of creation I am thankful!  To be out sketching in nature with deer slipping across your path or eagles soaring in the heavens is a pure delight.  I am grateful to the great Creator God for all these experiences. May you bring a heart full of thanks to this Thanksgiving holiday!

Live bravely and beautifully!