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“God’s in His heaven — All’s right with the world!” Have you ever heard that line from Robert Browning? Do you agree?
This line of poetry was taken from Browning’s poem, “Pippa’s Song”:
“Pippa’s Song”
THE year’s at the spring,
And day’s at the morn;
Morning’s at seven;
The hill-side’s dew-pearl’d;
The lark’s on the wing;
The snail’s on the thorn;
God’s in His heaven –
All’s right with the world!
Robert Browning (1812-1889)
This poem, especially its last two lines, has always struck a chord with me. Whenever I see rays of sunlight streaming through the clouds, I am reminded that “God’s in His heaven — All’s right with the world!” But I know some people wouldn’t agree with those lines. There are many things wrong with the world, after all. Shootings and terrorism are some of the first things that come to mind.
But I still hold that the lines of Browning’s poem are true – at least they can be true. No matter what this world brings upon itself as the result of sin, God is still God, and He is still good. He is still on His throne, and His world is good! This world down here is pretty muddied up (always has been, even before guns were invented – sinful people still killed), but its day of purging is coming. Even though we live in a sin-cursed world, we Christians have “the earnest of our inheritance” because we have the Spirit of God living in us. We have a down-payment of our heavenly reward here on earth. This means that even though the world is in chaos around us, we can still be at peace because of God’s Spirit living within us. This means that even though not much is right in the world, we can be right with God, and therefore everything in our world can be right as well. Do we still feel sadness and pity for the evil around us? Absolutely, but underneath that is a sure foundation of peace and rest in God. We know that God is in His heaven – and therefore, everything in our world can be right if we relax and follow God’s direction.
I just used the ending part to tell my granddaughter (she’s 15) that the family’s black cat (who seemed to have gotten out of the house and everyone was looking for him) that “all’s right with the world’” as Robert Browning said because he was under Grandma’s bed where he likes to sleep. He was at the head of the bed instead of the foot of the bed which is his usual place! His name is Charley and he was safe the whole time! 😊 they just didn’t look hard enough and thought he went outside! They looked for him for 5 hours. I was taking a snooze (I’m Grandma) when he decided to hop on my bed!
I believe that this is what St. Paul was also saying in the book of Romans 8:18-25.
Mmm…good thought.
Thanks for these reflections. How true and encouraging!
I agree with you. In spite of chaos around,when you feel the peace within you say All is right with the world!
Everything is perfect with the world…the problem is us.
We keep finding problems everywhere…why? The eagles don’t see problems anywhere, neither do the dolphins.
We keep starting wars and we murder each other when there is no need to do so.
People starve to death when there’s food everywhere…
But this is not the problem, the problem is: we don’t realize there is no problem.
Yes! Praise God! People STILL get it. God is Supreme as Creator and Sustainer of this world, and we can find peace amid the panic and problems if we but look to Him through our Lord Jesus Christ!
Thank you for this lovely post…
This is the very message preached from one pulpit here (in New Zealand ) this morning.
This verse was part of one of the readings for the day in that church.
Right-on, Briana.
“Everything in our world can be right if we relax and follow God’s direction.” Amen !
AMEN! “and the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep (guard) your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Phil. 4:7 God is faithful and true!