Lynne Baab • Tuesday September 20 2022
All you big things, bless the Lord.
Mount Kilimanjaro and Lake Victoria,
The Rift Valley and the Serengeti Plain,
Fat baobabs and shady mango trees,
All eucalyptus and tamarind trees,
bless the Lord.
Praise and extol Him for ever and ever.
All you tiny things, bless the Lord.
Busy black Ants and hopping fleas,
Wriggling tadpoles and mosquito larvae,
Flying locusts and water drops,
Pollen dust and tsetse flies,
Millet seeds and dried dagaa,
Bless the Lord.
Praise and extol him forever.
Former archbishop and anti-apartheid and human rights activist Desmond Tutu includes this prayer in his book An African Prayer Book. I love the specificity of the things in the prayer, and it motivates me to think of the big and tiny things in my world.
Mount Rainier, Puget Sound, Lake Washington, the Olympic Mountains, the Cascades. Here in Seattle, we have it easy when it comes to big things. I’m sure wherever you live, big things are praising God. I love trees, including the very biggest: redwoods, firs, pines, hemlocks, and cedars. Even medium sized trees like flowering dogwoods and big leaf maples are big compared to me.
The tiny things you notice will probably be different than mine. I might include numerous food items like sesame seeds and quinoa. Honey bees are essential to our food supply, and surely they are praising God with their busy, fruitful activity. Small flower petals, tiny Japanese maple leaves, and flitting hummingbirds seem to be praising God with their beauty. Surely the tiny bacteria in our gut that help us digest our food and do so many other things for us are praising God with their mysterious actions that are essential for human life.
This evocative prayer from Africa raises a question that relates to many verses in psalms: Is this really a prayer? Or is it a call to prayer?
Consider these verses:
Praise the Lord from the earth,
you sea monsters and all deeps,
fire and hail, snow and frost,
stormy wind fulfilling his command! (Psalm 148:7, 8)
O sing to the Lord a new song;
sing to the Lord, all the earth. (Psalm 96:1)
These calls to prayer are not, in my opinion, actually prayers. Yet they play a significant role in our prayer experience, in part because they remind us to pray. Listening to a call to praise directed at Mount Kilimanjaro or Mount Everest motivates me to take a moment for praise. In addition, this kind of call to prayer helps us feel our connection to the whole created world. All parts of it were made by God, and we sing God’s praises alongside the beautiful creation.
You may enjoy writing your own call to praise modeled after the African Canticle or a psalm. Be as specific as you can! You may find as you call others to prayer, your own prayers become more rich and complex.
Creator God, we praise you for the beauty around us. We praise you for the mountains, waters, skies, cedar trees, and Douglas firs. We praise you for tiny grains and seeds that we cook to make delicious food. We praise you alongside all those beautiful parts of your creation. Help us to notice the big and small gifts you give us. Help us join with creation in praising you. Amen.
(Next week: To whom do we pray? Illustration by Dave Baab: valley and mountains near Paradise, in the Cascades Mountains, Washington State. If you’d like to receive an email when I post on this blog, sign up under “subscribe” below.)
Previous posts on praise:
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Lynne M. Baab, Ph.D., is an author and adjunct professor. She has written numerous books, Bible study guides, and articles for magazines and journals. Lynne is passionate about prayer and other ways to draw near to God, and her writing conveys encouragement for readers to be their authentic selves before God. She encourages experimentation and lightness in Christians spiritual practices. Read more »
Lynne is pleased to announce the release of her two 2024 books, both of them illustrated with her talented husband Dave's watercolors. She is thrilled at how good the watercolors look in the printed books, and in the kindle versions, if read on a phone, the watercolors glow. Friendship, Listening and Empathy: A Prayer Guide guides the reader into new ways to pray about the topics in the title. Draw Near: A Lenten Devotional guides the reader to a psalm for each day of Lent and offers insightful reflection/discussion questions that can be used alone or in groups.
Another recent book is Two Hands: Grief and Gratitude in the Christian Life, available in paperback, audiobook, and for kindle. Lynne's 2018 book is Nurturing Hope: Christian Pastoral Care for the Twenty-First Century, and her most popular book is Sabbath-Keeping: Finding Freedom in the Rhythms of Rest (now available as an audiobook as well as paperback and kindle). You can see her many other book titles here, along with her Bible study guides.
You can listen to Lynne talk about these topics: empathy, bringing spiritual practices to life. Sabbath keeping for recent grads., and Sabbath keeping for families and children.
Lynne was interviewed for the podcast "As the Crow Flies". The first episode focuses on why listening matters and the second one on listening skills.
Here are two talks Lynne gave on listening (recorded in audio form on YouTube): Listening for Mission and Ministry and Why Listening Matters for Mission and Ministry.
"Lynne's writing is beautiful. Her tone has such a note of hope and excitement about growth. It is gentle and affirming."
— a reader
"Dear Dr. Baab, You changed my life. It is only through God’s gift of the sabbath that I feel in my heart and soul that God loves me apart from anything I do."
— a reader of Sabbath Keeping
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