Nature’s Lesson

“Look at the birds of the air,” Christ told his followers. “They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?” Later He added, “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?”

One of my favorite poems is “Lo the Lilies of the Field,” by Reginald Heber. Heber (1783-1826) was a prolific hymn writer, most famous for writing “Holy, Holy, Holy.” He was also involved in overseas missions, serving in the Indian city of Calcutta for the last three years of his life.

Enjoy this poem today, and remember to ‘hark to Nature’s lesson given by the blessed birds of Heaven!”

1. Lo the lilies of the field,
how their leaves instruction yield!
Hark to Nature’s lesson given
by the blessed birds of Heaven!
Every bush and tufted tree
warbles sweet philosophy:
“Mortal, fly from doubt and sorrow;
God provideth for the morrow!

2. Say, with richer crimson glows
the kingly mantle than the rose?
Say, have kings more wholesome fare
than we, poor citizens of air?
Barns nor hoarded grain have we,
yet we carol merrily.
Mortal, fly from doubt and sorrow!
God provideth for the morrow!

3. One there lives whose guardian eye
guides our humble destiny;
One there lives who, Lord of all,
keeps our feathers lest they fall:
pass we blithely then the time,
fearless of the snare and lime,
free from doubt and faithless sorrow;
God provideth for the morrow!”