In God’s Sanctuary

How Creation Speaks to the Searching Soul

By Sandy Mayle

Beyond our back field lies about eight acres of woods, where a trail circles through towering tulip poplars and overgrown dogwoods and aging maples. Over the years I have often prayerwalked there, making circles of surrender or grief or gratitude. And in the walking, these woods have become a sanctuary for me—a place to meet God, a holy place.

Within those back woods grows a unique old maple. Three large trunks rise from its base, and off one of those a single branch dips low to the ground in an invitation to sit a while.

I dubbed that maple the “Trinitree” because it’s a visual of the Trinity—God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. It’s also a symbol of the invitation this Three-in-One God always extends to me to draw near to Himself. To bring my concerns to Him. To take pleasure in His beauty and draw strength from His size as I rest on Him and lean into His solid sureness.

Jesus First

From childhood I have often wandered outdoors to indulge curiosity, work out problems, blow off steam, or fill lonely hours. When as a teen I lived in disconnect from God, nature became to me like young David playing his harp for the troubled King Saul (1 Sam. 16:23). The outdoors soothed the turmoil in me, but there was still something missing, something beyond my grasp. A sense of isolation persisted.