Praise the LORD, All Creatures Great and Small

There’s a poem by Cecil F. Alexander (1848) called “All Things Bright and Beautiful” and it begins:

All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful:
The Lord God made them all.

Each little flower that opens,
Each little bird that sings,
He made their glowing colors,
He made their tiny wings.

I was thinking about that today because one of the joys of gardening and feeding the birds is the short window of migration when these jewels of nature wing their way through my yard.  The year round residents of goldfinches and cardinals and blue jays have been joined by migratory indigo buntings and rose-breasted grosbeaks.  It will not be long before the scarlet tanager and the Baltimore orioles and hummingbirds will be here, too.  In their colorful beauty and their cheerful song, I am certain they are praising the LORD.