O God, Our Creator, You Work Every Day

Representative Text

O God, our Creator, you work every day:
A potter, you form us, your people, like clay.
A shepherd, you guide us and seek out the lost.
A parent, you love us, not counting the cost.

Christ Jesus, how rough were your hard-working hands!
You labored among us; our God understands!
Bless workers who struggle, their families to feed;
Bless those who face hardship, oppression, or greed.

Lord, some live among us who need constant care,
Whose work is to make us more humbly aware.
They teach us the best of your lessons, by far:
It’s not what we do, Lord, you love who we are!

We’re baptized! Your Spirit gives new work to do,
That we, through our serving, may glorify you.
Each person’s vocation, each calling, has worth
As you send us out to bring Christ’s love on earth.


Source: Songs of Grace: new hymns for God and neighbor #62a

Author: Carolyn Winfrey Gillette

Carolyn Winfrey Gillette has been a pastor in rural, small town, suburban, and city churches; she has also served as a hospice chaplain, a hospital chaplain, and a school bus aide helping children with special needs. She and her husband Bruce are pastors of the First Presbyterian Union Church in Owego, NY. Carolyn is a gifted hymn writer who has written over 400 hymns. These hymns have been sung by congregations throughout the United States and around the world — from the Washington National Cathedral to St. Giles' Cathedral in Edinburgh, Scotland to St. George's Cathedral in Cape Town, South Africa to small town churches and small household congregations; they have also been sung at national church and international ecumenical meetin… Go to person page >

Tune

FOUNDATION (American)

The anonymous tune FOUNDATION first appeared in Joseph Funk's A Compilation of Genuine Church Music (1832) as a setting for this text (there it was called PROTECTION). The tune was also published with the text in Southern Harmony and Sacred Harp. The ancestors of Joseph Funk (b. Lancaster County, PA…

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ST. DENIO

ST. DENIO is based on "Can mlynedd i nawr" ("A Hundred Years from Now"), a traditional Welsh ballad popular in the early nineteenth century. It was first published as a hymn tune in John Roberts's Caniadau y Cyssegr (Hymns of the Sanctuary, 1839). The tune title refers to St. Denis, the patron saint…

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Instances

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Text

Songs of Grace #62a

Text

Songs of Grace #62b

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