🎶All things bright and beautiful, All creatures great and small, All things wise and wonderful, The Lord God made them all.🎶
Psalm 104:24: “O Lord, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all”
“As you do not know what is the way of the wind, Or how the bones grow in the womb of her who is with child, So you do not know the works of God who makes everything.”
Ecclesiastes 11:5 NKJV
🎶He gave us eyes to see them,
And lips that we might tell
How great is God Almighty,
Who has made all things well.”
“Irish poet and hymn-writer Cecil Frances Alexander penned “All Things Bright and Beautiful” in 1848 to help children grasp the meaning of the opening line of the Apostles’ Creed: “I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.”
We are in summer break for children from school and many churches are having Bible School for a week or so. They often teach this song to children along with scriptures to memorize. This week one of our writers and friend, Tammy Holton, shared a little video of her four year old grandson that wanted to show his Nan Nan what he had learned at Bible School. He boldly proclaimed John 8:12, “Jesus is the Light of the world.” Nam Nan proudly proclaimed the words of Jesus, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” (Matthew 19:14)
I was touched by hearing this little child learning and sharing. I had just penned words with my photo of a little chickmunk that decided one nice sunny morning to share one of my prayer chairs.
I allowed the little creature to stay and enjoy my angel singing. Well that is how I see the art statue.
Then a few hours later my six year old granddaughter shared her photo of her house spider with babies.
Now I won’t write my first thoughts that tried to instruct me how to handle that pesky chickmunk as well as my granddaughter’s spider nuisance. I paused. Spent a few hours thinking about my thoughts when this precious song came to my remembrance. 🎶All things bright and beautiful, All creatures great and small, All things wise and wonderful, The Lord God made them all.🎶 My perspective begin to shift a little about small creatures.
Then very quickly a text of the cutest little guy sharing, that Jesus is the light of the world.
I imagine you might be thinking what is all this “little” about when our nation is at war. And gas prices high as well as food and about anything you might name. Trouble seems everywhere. Yet, God has it all under control if we just remember to be and do our little thing!
🎶Each little flower that opens
Each little bird that sings
He made their glowing colours
He made their tiny wings🎶
Always remember; “Jesus is the light of the world” proclaims little Holton!
*Tammy’s co-workers spider web! 🤩 See Notes in comments.
thedailylily.com 
“Just as God sees visions of what is to be created and then creates, so too we are designed to see visions and create in accordance with the power and presence of God in our lives.” Daniel Wolpert, Creating a Life with God:
“He has filled him with a divine spirit, with ability, intelligence, and knowledge, and with every kind of skill, to devise artistic designs. (Exodus 35:31 NRSVUE)
And, it goes on and on….
“to devise artistic designs, to work in gold and silver and bronze, in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, for work in every skilled craft. And he has inspired him to teach, both him and Oholiab the son of Ahisamach of the tribe of Dan. He has filled them with skill to do every sort of work done by an engraver or by a designer or by an embroiderer in blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen, or by a weaver—by any sort of workman or skilled designer.”
(Exodus 35:32-35 ESV)
The beauty of it all God has filled his people with a divine spirit to do what? The Little things! Why might they be “little things and little creatures?
Read above Wolpert’s words again! And, remember from our blog, little 4 year old Holton proclaiming, “Jesus is the light of the world.” Be sure to temember Jesus is the light of the world but so are we lights and need to shine in our skill as it becomes part of the whole!
Notes: Tammy Holton shared; My coworker showed me this today. (See photo in blog above) This spider puts a web in this area every evening she said and gone during day hours. Isn’t the web cool?
She said the other night the spider grabbed the web and pulled it up, like pulling up their pants😂
WOW Oh WOW learing new things and they are awesome. A spider puts a new web every evening in the same location. (See photo in blog)
Just amazing I think I’m beginning to believe the story of Charlotte’s Web. Charlotte the spider and Wilbur the pig. I believe now Charlotte wrote those letters in her web now.
Thanks Tammy for sharing your co-workers photo and story. She will be a stamp on my mind to remember “do no harm to others.” And, that includes a tiny little spider.
All things bright and beautiful the Lord God made them all.
How about Proverbs 30:24-28? (NLT) “There are four things on earth that are small but unusually wise: Ants-they aren’t strong, but they store up food all summer. Hyraxes- they are powerful, but they make their homes among the rocks. Locusts-they have no king, but they march information. Lizards-they are easy to catch, but they are found even in kings’ palaces.” The footnotes for these verses says: “ “Ants can teach us about preparation, badgers about wise building, locusts about cooperation and order, and lizards about fearlessness. Compare this to Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 6: 25-34 that an effective way to resist worry involves a careful observation of the birds and the lilies.”
These 4 things have opened my eyes once again about my lack of paying attention. As well as observing the birds and lilies to resist worry.
I have read these verses and probably heard many sermons on them but did I pay enough attention to learn and grow wiser and healthier? Absolutely not! I must say I’m not going to stay in this stance but take time to observe.
To be honest I don’t think I’ve penciled in my calendar or journal that this would be a good thing to pause to observe those 4 small things or the birds and lilies enough to learn and receive health benefits.
Resist worry I could sure use a daily dose of bird watching and enjoying the beauty of lilies which are blooming beautifully in my garden at this very moment to help with worry about the what ifs?
I’m getting ready to thank Tammy for bringing this to our attention but I’m laughing a little now and want to say oh yeah that’s part of being a nurse to remind us to take our meds! 🙌
Now I’m laughing too 😂 I sure need to resist worry and do more bird watching and enjoying the beauty of Lillie’s too. Hey…. “Laughter does good like a medicine “! 😂
What a great blog and photos to help us pause and consider the ‘small things’. I loved seeing the photo shared by Sara’s granddaughter of the house spiders and babies. It made me think of one of Sara’s teaching retreats where we went to see Charlotte’s Web in a beautiful outdoor theater. Charlotte the spider helped save a life with her skilled gift and friendship. And the pig she helped save was not left alone when her time on earth ended. The Heavenly Father made sure that a few of her many, many children stayed close by Wilbur as friends.
Then to see today Tammy’s co-workers spider web, see the beauty of the web, and read about it was truly amazing. The spider is reflecting like a bright light, reminding me of Tammy’s grandson’s words, “Jesus is the Light of the world.”
Spiders play important roles in our world. Beneficial spiders feed on a lot of different insect pests and can help reduce the number of insects that harm crops and plants. This, in turn, can help reduce the need for pesticides. “How great is God Almighty, Who has made all things well.” He knows how to keep things in balance. As Sara wrote, “Yet, God has it all under control if we just remember to be and do our little thing!”
I agree this is a great blog. It’s summer time and summer joy is in the air seeing all the little creatures we are sharing stories about.
Hi Tammy’s co-worker, my husband Gary after reading your story and seeing your photo asked with a chuckle, did she daily tear the little guy’s web down? 🤔 I was also wondering about why “spider” had to remake each night!
I was guessing she had to write a different message each night! 😂
So, Im working with my coworker today, that has the spider and web every night and she said that every morning the spider and web are gone (like daybreak) and when she looks around bedtime 10-11pm, the spider and web has returned…. Every night she said. 😂
Co-worker. Your story is ready for a book. I want next chapter, why is that spider spying on you?