How Great Thou Art: God's Awesome Symphony of Nature

CRASH! The thunder was deafening as lightning lit up the sky! The wind was whipping powerfully over the meadows, and the travelers rushed for cover! They were returning home from church in Kronobäck, on the southeastern Swedish coast. Once the storm had died down, they continued their journey, awestruck by a stunning rainbow.

Image by IgorZh on Adobe Stock

Upon reaching home, Carl Boberg opened the window of his house, which had a beautiful view of the sea. The church bells were playing a hymn. The birds sang from their perches in the trees. The brook rippled. It was 1885, and at that time of year, the colors all around were particularly vivid. The powerful winds had become a gentle breeze.

That evening, Boberg wrote a poem entitled O Store Gud (literally "O Mighty God"). It would later be set to music, using a Swedish folk tune.

Image by Наталья Евтехова on Adobe Stock

In 1907, it was translated into German by Manfred von Glehn, and a few years later, Russian pastor Ivan Prokhanoff would translate it into Russian. In the 1920s or 1930s (sources disagree on the decade), English missionary Stuart K. Hine was in Ukraine, where he heard the Russian version of O Store Gud. He and his wife would sing it for years, until one day he translated it into English:

O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder
Consider all the works Thy hands have made,
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,
Thy pow’r thru-out the universe displayed!

Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee;
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!
Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee;
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!

When thru the woods and forest glades I wander
And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees,
When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur
And hear the brook and feel the gentle breeze,

Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee;
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!
Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee;
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!

And when I think that God, His Son not sparing,
Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in –
That on the cross, my burden gladly bearing,
He bled and died to take away my sin!

Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee;
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!
Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee;
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!

When Christ shall come with shout of acclamation
And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart!
Then I shall bow in humble adoration
And there proclaim, my God, how great Thou art!

Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee;
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!
Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee;
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!

As far as I know, the main change since Hine translated it into English is that in the version that I grew up singing, "works" in the first verse changed to "worlds", though some hymnals have a footnote stating the original word was "works."

Over the course of my life, I have seen so much awesome beauty and power in nature. Tropical downpours in the Philippines make a typical Seattle rain look like a little trickle. Lightning in Wisconsin (and in the Philippines, for that matter), stretches all up and down the expanse of the sky. The earthquake in Seattle in 2001 was a terrifying experience. Philippine beaches, coral reefs, rice terraces and more, are breathtaking. The French and English countryside is stunning. I have never felt so cold as waiting at a bus station in Chicago in the winter. Sleeping under the stars at the foot of Taal Volcano, Philippines, away from city lights and smog, the sky was almost white with stars. I have never seen so many stars as I did that night. It was awe-inspiring. Some friends in Surigao, Philippines once lost their roof in a typhoon. The mountain ranges where I have been (including Olympics, Cascades, Rockies and Smokies) are spectacular. I have thankfully never experienced a tsunami, but I have seen some powerful waves. The Northern Lights are on my bucket list. NASA images of planets, stars, nebulae and other astronomical phenomena blow me away. While strong weather isn't always enjoyable, it is usually awesome. Birds sing. Geckos gecko (thus their name). Crickets chirp. The sounds of the animals alone can become a stunning symphony.

To think that the God who made all that cared so much for me that He sent His Son to die for me, and I will meet Him face to face someday!

https://americansongwriter.com/behind-the-song-carl-boberg-how-great-thou-art/

https://www.staugustine.com/story/lifestyle/faith/2016/06/24/story-behind-song-how-great-thou-art/16304855007/

The Two Seasons

Some of the most stunning natural beauty and the most violent weather I've ever encountered have been in the Philippines, where they only have two seasons: dry and rainy. The palm trees, the sunny beaches, the coral reefs, banana trees, and so much more, are breathtaking. Both seasons are necessary, and both have their drawbacks. 

The rain floods the rice fields, which is important in growing it. Tropical downpours are much stronger than anything I have encountered in the Seattle area, where I live now. It is like standing in the shower. At times, we had to deal with flooding. The wind can get very violent. We had some friends who lost their roof in a typhoon once. With the combination of rain and wind, we learned to move beds and anything else away from the windows when there was a typhoon in the forecast. Thunder can be loud and last a long time, and the lightning lights up the entire sky. The rain, wind and lightning are an awesome force, and are both amazing and terrifying. They can cause a lot of destruction.

But once the rainy season is over, the weather is a lot more calm. The sun beats down. The tropics shine, and the beauty is dazzling. But with my fair skin and red hair, I had to be very careful, as I also got some serious sunburns. The rice fields dried out and cracked. During the dry season, they looked like a desert.

Both seasons are warm year round, as the Philippines is just north of the equator, but it gets a lot hotter during the dry season. We were shivering when it dipped down into the 70s.

I wrote this sonnet in high school as part of an assignment in English class.

travnikovstudio/Adobe Stock

The sun is shining bright

Over the beautiful land of the Philippines
It is such a sight
With an array of gorgeous scenes.
The sea is sparkling light
And the beach cannot compare
While the birds in their soft flight
Soar on the wings of the air.

Rainy Season is here.
The rain falls in torrents
Lightning strikes and thunder claps, causing fear,
And making the little birds tense.
In five months, the rainy season will be over and done
The Philippines will once more know the sun.

Michael/Adobe Stock

icemanphotos/Adobe Stock

The Carabao and the Storm

...or "Steven Channels His Inner Aesop"... I wrote the following poem March 29, 1995 as part of an assignment in a high school English class. This part of the assignment was to write a poetic fable. 

A carabao, also known as a water buffalo, is a bovine that is used in several Southeast Asian cultures to assist in planting rice and other farming tasks, similar to an ox in other cultures. It is pronounced "care a bow" and rhymes with cow. They are are a common sight in the Philippines, and I remember going to sleep at times to the dulcet tones of local carabao and cats having spirited conversations. ("Moooooo!" "MEOW!" "Mooooo!" "MEOW!!" They were clearly conversations, as they alternated, and I never heard them speaking at the same time.)

Philippine Carabao

Photo by Cabajar

CC BY-SA 3.0 license

Off in the distance...
Ru-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-m-m-m-m-m-m-m-m-m-m-mbl-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-e!
Thunder!
Everybody ran
Away from the flooded rice paddies
Except for one carabao
Who said, "Silly carabaos!
What chickens!
I’m staying here!
There’s work to do!
My master will be proud of me!
But who will reward those cowardly carabao?
Not me, I’m brave!
Why, I’m the bravest carabao of the lot!
Aren’t I grea----"
ZAP!
RU-U-U-U-U-U-U-U-U-U-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-M-MBL-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-E!
Next morning, all of the carabaos returned
To find a dead carabao
Lying in the slop.

Moral:
"Pride goes before destruction,
     a haughty spirit before a fall." (Proverbs 16:18)