The World Before Us

How beautiful the world when first
the morning opens into light,
and all the heavens seem to pour
their hidden riches into sight.

The sun belongs to every land.
Its splendor asks for nothing back.
It enters palaces and homes
and falls alike upon the poor.

The wind moves freely over all,
as though the earth were one great room,
and every distant shore were joined
beneath the same eternal blue.

Why then should hearts divide the world
and call one portion theirs alone?
What boundary can withstand the stars,
or keep the moon from shining on?

We are but visitors awhile,
receiving breath we cannot keep.
The hours pass through open hands
and carry all our years away.

The mighty rise, the mighty fall.
The humble rise, the humble fall.
Before the everlasting sky,
how small the walls we build appear.

And yet this world is beautiful
beyond the power of speech to tell.
Each human life, however brief,
holds something heaven gave to it.

When we behold the earth aright,
we cannot turn our hearts away.
We see within each human soul
a light belonging to the whole.

Then let the nations seek their peace
beneath the vastness of the sun.
Let mercy have the final word,
and let the work of hatred cease.

For we were given but a while
to walk beneath these open skies.
May we leave this beautiful earth
more worthy of the light we saw.