Beauty in Out-of-the-Way Places - #5789
Thursday, March 19, 2009
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I have an inspiring view out of my office window. I look out at a mountain with this rolling field in between me and the mountain. The field dips down into a hollow, or a "holler" as they call it down South. In the spring, some of the trees in the hollow start to bloom in living color. The redbud, the dogwood, they just start setting out their blossoms in all their glory. Last spring, someone walked into my office, glanced out that window, and said, "Well, look at those beautiful trees down there." They are beautiful, but they're in a spot where very few people ever see that beauty.


It seems like it's almost America's spiritual national anthem - even more so after the emotional earthquake of September 11, 2001. You heard it a lot then. It's that centuries-old hymn, Amazing Grace. For years, they've played it at the funerals of fallen policemen and firemen and of many everyday men and women. It's been the subject of a public television documentary. And on the emotional anniversaries after September 11, at Ground Zero, what song have the bagpipers played as they approached that site which has become hallowed ground? Of course, they were playing the haunting strains of Amazing Grace. Even for people who don't go to church or know much about the Bible or even believe much of anything, they know Amazing Grace.