Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Psalm of the Kimberley

While I'm waiting for all those zillion photos to get sorted, edited etc, I thought I'd try and summarise my experience of the north-West Australian wilderness, and the almost palpable presence of God in all that beauty ..

Lord of the blood red rock and the turquoise waters
Who lifts the eagle’s flight and opens the crocodile’s jaw;
Lord of the many waters
The rushing, mighty tides, and the waterfall’s cascading
The deluge and the dryness, each in their season.

God who carved the sandstone gorges
And made a sculpture garden in the wilderness
Who engineered the mangrove, and shaped the egret’s wing;
Whose love sings in the seaspray, and whose laughter rings among the stars..

Thank you for your beauty.
Thank you for the sleek, pale turtle, gliding underwater
For the treasures of the rockpool, and the diligence of the osprey.
Thankyou for your sunsets, flung lavish across the sky
And the comedy of mudskippers and flame-hued little crabs.
Thankyou for smooth waters, and the rhythm of the waves
For tropic nights with stars of fierce white fire,
And the tenderness of early morning light.

These things do not need me, their anthem is for you.
But in them I see you afresh, my Maker, my Redeemer
I see you and rejoice, marvelling at largesse
The liberality that pours such beauty on the earth
For your good pleasure.

Shall he who wove the osprey’s nest
And causes trees to grow on naked rock,
Who painted the kingfisher, and taught the monjon how to hide
Shall he not also bring his children home,
Safe in his love forever?

1 comment:

Suzanne R said...

Wow. I know that "wow" seems like a rather mundane and earthly word with which to respond to the utter beauty of this psalm. It was the first word that came to my mind, however. I feel that the Kimberley and what you experienced there has been better described here than many more words of prose might have done. And then to have the awesomeness of God and his creation brought in: perfection.