Evelyn Dove Coleman: Hope and Grace for America & the World
Katharine Lee Bates wrote these words to "America the Beautiful." O beautiful for spacious skies. For amber waves of grain. For purple mountain majesties. Above the fruited plain. America. America. God shed his grace on thee. And crown thy good. With brotherhood. From sea to shining sea.
Bates wrote it as a poem in 1893 and it was first published in 1895, it was combined with music composed by church organist Samuel A. Ward in 1910. Bates wrote the poem after a journey to the top of Pikes Peak in Colorado, and there are many other word in it. See them at https://genius.com/Katharine-lee-bates-america-the-beautiful-lyrics.
I want us, though, to hone in on this particular line: God shed His grace on thee and crown thy good with brotherhood. This is a corporate prayer for today. Our country seems to have lapsed into an abyss of dismal behaviors. Someone is killed often. Highway accidents happen daily. Relationships are tossed out windows willy-nilly. People look you right in the face and lie. Let's decide to turn things around in terms of having scruples, dignity, principles, and veracity. Purpose to begin to make the world a better place.
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