The Lord is good to me. ...
Posted by tom | Nov 3, 2009This morning, Eden and I prayed several prayers from A Child's First Book of Prayers (By Lois Rock, illustrated by Alison Jay, Augsburg Books, 2002). This prayer attributed to John Chapman, American pioneer, developer of nurseries, & Swedenborgian evangelist/missionary brings back memories of a favorite picture book and the below Disney clip. No doubt, the stories of Johnny Appleseed inspired me as a child to give praise to God for the creation, seek to care for the creation in a way which will bless my neighbor, and to love my neighbor. If you would have asked me at the time, I would have told you that he was Presbyterian just like me. ...
The Lord is good to me,
And so I thank the Lord
For giving me the things I need,
The sun, the rain, the appleseed,
The Lord is good to me.
PS. Interested in more music/video on Johnny Appleseed? Then check out the Swedenborgian Community.org: an on-line congregation. Comments on the broad teachings of the Swedenborgian Community delivered in a narrow context will have to wait for another day, but if you'd like to get a head start visit this post by the Swedenborgian Community.org: an on-line congregation. Note: I had some contact with members of their community when I lived in Pittsburgh.
We sing this song about once a week for grace at dinnertime (alternated with the Doxology and Amazing Grace - which one of my daughters recently rewrote to say "...which saved a wretch like *you*.") If you want more Swedenborgian goodness, have you read The Chess Garden?
http://www.amazon.com/Chess-Garden-Brooks-Hansen/dp/1573225630
Absolutely the best epistolary novel ever written about a Swedenborgian doctor from Dayton, OH, who travels to a fictional land of game pieces.
Posted by Mike, Nov 3 2009, 14:10