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This is My Father’s World (UM Hymnal #144)
My father became the first Christian in my family. Therefore, he often faced rejection from the Confucian elders on my grandfather’s side and the Buddhist elders in my grandmother’s family. When it came to family rituals, the whole family would gather for ancestral rites several times in a year. While my father faithfully attended these family rituals, he refrained from bowing at the ancestral rite table, spending the entire time praying silently at the corner. This was his way of fulfilling his obligations as a Christian and a member of the family. As the eldest son, I often found myself caught in a confusing time between my father and the Confucian elders. Each time, I would receive reprimands from the family elders for not honoring the ancestors.
If the Gospel is good news, why was our family always in such discomfort? What does it mean that Jesus is the Savior to us? I was very serious with this matter. If the God who created the universe and all my ancestors before Christianity, what would their destiny be in the end? I disagree with my father that my loving grandmother (Buddhist) and my respectable grandfather (Confucianist) were sent into hell because they are not Christians. I don’t know if this is true or not because I am not the Creator, God. But I believe that God is the creator of both of them and very generous and loves us all unconditionally.
“This is My Father’s World” is a poetic and beautiful look at the role between Creator and creation. If it is God who wrought the “rocks and trees…skies and seas,” how much more will God rule over those made in His own image–including our ancestors who did not know Christ? In the vast universe created by God, Earth is nothing but a tiny blue dot. I was sure that my grandparents also were fearfully and wonderfully made by God. Singing this hymn brought me great comfort, especially knowing that if God is my Father, there's no reason for my heart to be sad.
“Some people, in order to discover God, read the Bible. But there is a great book: the very appearance of created things. Look above you! Look below you! Read it. God, whom you want to discover, never wrote that book with ink. Instead, He set before your eyes the things that He had made. Can you ask for a louder voice than that?” (St. Augustine of Hippo)
Reflection and Prayer: This is my Father's world
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AByrgFz2jE
This is my Father's world,
And to my listening ears
All nature sings, and round me rings
The music of the spheres.
This is my Father's world:
I rest me in the thought
Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas--
His hand the wonders wrought.
This is my Father's world:
The birds their carols raise,
The morning light, the lily white,
Declare their Maker's praise.
This is my Father's world:
He shines in all that's fair;
In the rustling grass I hear Him pass,
He speaks to me everywhere.
This is my Father's world:
O let me ne'er forget
That though the wrong seems oft so strong,
God is the Ruler yet.
This is my Father's world:
Why should my heart be sad?
The Lord is King: let the heavens ring!
God reigns; let earth be glad!
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