Weekly Magazine | Finding God in Nature
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Dear Friends,
Have you ever walked outside just to clear your head, and ended up finding something more?
Maybe it was a morning you stepped onto the back porch with your coffee and the way the light hit the trees made you stop. Maybe you heard a bird singing sweetly and it made you forget your busy schedule while you listened.
God has been using His creation to reach His people since the very beginning. I think there’s a reason Jesus pointed to the lillies and said, stop worrying and look at these. This week, our writers are helping us pause and appreciate God’s presence in nature, and we are inspired to get outside and enjoy all that God has created, and we hope you are, too.
Encouraging you in God’s truth,
In God's Sanctuary | Sandy Mayle
Sandy shares how the woods behind her home became a place to meet with God, from a maple tree she calls the "Trinitree" to prayer walks through grief and gratitude. Discover how finding God in nature begins with finding Him in Jesus first, and what it means to accept His open invitation to draw near.
God in the Garden | Kimberly Knowle-Zeller
Kimberly finds God in her morning garden walks, the slow work of seeds taking root, and the rhythms of growth and waiting. Her reflections on cultivating plants and community remind us that God's best work, in the ground and in our lives, takes time.
Sacred Wonder | Danae Templeton
Danae Templeton invites us to slow down long enough to see the world God made. In her article Danae traces the way creation speaks when we're quiet enough to listen, and shows us how to cultivate that attentiveness wherever our own lives are rooted.
Also:
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 prayer-walked 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. I bring my concerns to Him and take pleasure in His beauty. I draw strength from Him and lean into His solid sureness.
Jesus First
Even as a kid, I 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.
