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Jan Struther: We Thank You

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We thank You, God of heaven,
For all the joys that greet us,
For all that You have given
To help us and delight us
In earth and sky and seas;
The sunlight on the meadows,
The rainbow’s fleeting wonder,
The clouds with cooling shadows,
The stars that shine in splendor—
We thank You, God, for these.
For swift and gallant horses,
For lambs in pastures springing,
For dogs with friendly faces,
For birds with music thronging
Their chantries in the trees;
For herbs to cool our fever,
For flowers of field and garden,
For bees among the clover
With stolen sweetness laden—
We thank You, God, for these.
For homely dwelling places
Where childhood’s visions linger,
For friends and kindly voices,
For bread to stay our hunger
And sleep to bring us ease;
For zeal and zest of living,
For faith and understanding,
For words to tell our loving,
For hope of peace unending —
We thank You, God, for these.

Jan Struther (1901-1953) was an English writer and hymnist. Struther created the character Mrs. Miniver in 1937 for a series of columns in The Times of London. The columns were first published in book form in 1939. MGM adapted the tales into the film Mrs. Miniver, the top film of 1942 in the U.S. and Britain.