Daily Word for Wednesday, April 22 by the Rev. Ken Fields

Bless the Lord

According to A Great Cloud of Witnesses , the supplement to Lesser Feasts and Fasts , today we are called to remember John Muir and Hudson Stuck.

Anyone who’s ever been to Yosemite National Park has reason to remember and give thanks for Muir because he is the one whose work led to its being set apart as a national park. In fact, anyone who has been to any national park has reason to give him thanks because he really is the father of all our national parks. Born in Scotland, he immigrated with his family to this county when he was 11. Later he wound up in California and for much of his life there, Muir wrote more than 300 articles and 10 books praising the glories of God’s creation.

Stuck was also an immigrant, coming to this country too as a child. He wound up in Texas, went to seminary at the University of the South, served as the dean of the cathedral in Dallas and then became a missionary in Alaska. He too was an environmentalist, praising God for the beauty of his creation.

A hymn of praise is used today to remember the God they–and we–worshiped:

“Let the earth bless the Lord;

let it sing praise to him and highly exalt him forever.

Bless the Lord, mountains and hills;