Our heavenly Father, the Lord of creation, we worship you today for the glory revealed in the beauty and splendor of your created order, a natural order that surrounds us with magnificence.  May we never take for granted the expansive heavens that stretch overhead from horizon to horizon, the luminescent radiance of the shining sun and the glowing moon, the vastness of the oceans, the ranging mountains that rise toward heaven, and all the glistening streams and rivers that course the land.   We confess that you are the creative author of all of nature’s secrets that declare your Lordship over the natural world with which you have blessed us as to inhabit, in spite of the imperfection that results from earth’s fallen condition.  So cause us to declare thanksgiving and praise to you for the gift of salvation, that as your sons and daughters we prosper in redemption as we revel in the glory of creation.  Then, with grateful hearts, Father, we ask that you would help us recognize that your awesome creative power uniquely empowers us to become children of creative purpose, your servant children whose striving will serve and glorify you, as you make our dreams rich with meaning and filled with understanding of the awesome creation that surrounds us.  Thank you, Father, for choosing us and establishing us, just lower than the angels, in nature’s majestic order!