Praise the Lord! Praise God in His sanctuary; praise Him in His mighty heavens! Praise Him for His mighty deeds; praise Him according to His excellent greatness… Let everything that has breath praise the Lord! Praise the Lord (Psalm 50:1-2; 6–ESV)!

Yesterday I cracked the cover to read the morning’s devotion in John Baillie’s classic A Diary of Private Prayer. Before I’d even finished the first full sentence, my jaw dropped and my heart pounded as I pondered his poetic words.Because, not only are they beautiful and true no matter how mundane ones morning, for this particular day–a day when a visit to Yellowstone National Park was on the agenda–I was awestruck by their perfect timeliness.

Creator Spirit, who forever hovers over the lands and waters of earth, enriching them with forms and colors that no human skill can copy, give me today the mind and heart to rejoice in your creation.

Forbid that I should walk through Your beautiful world with unseeing eyes… Let the energy and vigor which in Your wisdom You have infused into every living thing stir within my being today, so that I may not be a lazy or mindless bystander among your creatures;

And above all give me grace to use these beauties of earth around me and this eager stirring of life within me to lift my soul from creature to Creator, and from nature to nature’s God.

O Lord, Your divine tenderness always outsoars the narrow loves and kindnesses of earth. Grant me today a kind and gentle heart toward all things that live… 

(From A Diary of Private Prayer–Thirtieth Day / Morning).

After closing the book, we stepped into a day that left me in absolute awe of God’s creativity, discovered in a variety of ways in the hours that followed. We logged over twelve miles of walking–hiking to hidden waterfalls high in the forest; strolling along boardwalks leading to four different hydrothermal formations–a reminder that there’s much activity going on just below the earth’s crust; and meandering along paths to discover creatures large and small.As we fell in to bed, it took some time for my mind to turn off–so full with all we’d experienced in only a dozen hours or so. But I breathed a prayer, thanking God for His character so evident in all that He created–for our pleasure and that we might never fail to give Him praise.Enjoy some of the beauty, captured in photographs while in Yellowstone National Park just yesterday, June 30, 2021. And don’t forget–tell our creative God how marvelous He is!Because… He is!

Praise the Lord!