Nature – Look, See, Pray

Beauty in Nature is evident to most people, whether the colours of a flower or the song of a blackbird. A raspberry picked and eaten fresh is an exquisite experience; the gentleness of new beech leaves is like stroking satin. To be deprived of one or more of our five senses is rightly considered to be a great loss.

I have discovered that enjoying beauty in nature is a key that unlocks my spiritual senses. Finding the “fingerprint” of the Creator excites my spirit as well as emotions. So I use photography as a means to “record” God’s creative thought; it allows me to use Nature as a staircase to climb nearer to God.

Beauty is, for me at least, part of a three-pronged strategy for worshipping and knowing God. Becoming sensitive to the Presence and action of the Holy Spirit is the second “prong” – this is the hardest to explain as it is a “knowing” that is partly revelation of God and partly my attuned intuition. Third, but by no means least, is the role of Scripture. This is the written form of the Lord’s revealing grace through history, poetry, narrative, and prophecy- it is VITAL.

Bible “reading” by itself is good: then the effort that goes into truly comprehending the Books so they can inform and guide is considerable. Four years at Bible College was only the beginning of the beginning of me discovering Truth, paradox, mystery, and divine grace.

Learning to “do the Bible” is truly praiseworthy; the reading must affect our hearts as well as our mind. If not, we may become well-educated pieces of dead wood! Knowledge about God cannot take the place of KNOWING God.

Sometimes we struggle for closeness to God, and beat ourselves up about not reading the Bible enough (and/or not praying enough).

So if you find yourself “running rough” (or failing to connect through what we might call “religious acts”), try this approach route:

Go and FIND something absolutely BEAUTIFUL. Contemplate your “find” and ask questions of yourself (and of God).

1. Why does this move me?
2. How have I experienced God through beauty in the past?
3. What is it about this particular “beauty” that impacts my spirit?
4. Lord God, what are YOU saying to me in this?
5. Lord, please will you help me to draw closer through this beauty, and remind me of Scriptures that speak further of Your Love; then allow Your Spirit to breathe life, fire or living water in to my soul.

By the way, aren’t Foxgloves pretty?
Enjoy the photo- and seek Jesus through it!

*Seeking wisdom in the Tree Cathedral, near Whipsnade.*

The Tree Cathedral is a wonderful place to visit, pray, and think. I used to live fairly close, and always found it a sympathetic destination! When there, I could walk among the trees and it seemed as if God were easier to reach. Did you know that trees are mentioned in the Bible more than any living thing other than God and people? There’s a tree on the first page of Genesis, the first Psalm, the first page of the New Testament, and the last page of Revelation.

In the Wisdom literature of the Old Testament, a collection of proverbs describe wisdom as a character, as if wisdom is really a person rather just “knowing stuff.” Encyclopaedias are stuffed with facts, but until facts are learned and put into practice the book isn’t much use to anyone.

“Wisdom is a tree of life to those who take hold of her; those who hold her fast will be blessed” Proverbs 3:18

“Do you lack wisdom? Ask for it!” said James (see James 1 v5). If our natural inclination is to “go it alone” there is no-one to check with- “Am I right or wrong?” Gaining wisdom is best done as a shared quest, life done as a rhythm of personal thinking and shared conversation. Part of my calling as a pastor and theologian has been to explore, learn, and develop in both knowledge and wisdom: and it has always been a journey with companions (and done in the context of including God and the scriptures along the way).

Then my vocation is to share what I have discovered, and try to do so in words that make things clearer and easier to grasp for other people.

This morning I came across a blog post that succeeds in that aim: so I’m sharing a snippet of wisdom! Question: how well do you understand the Holy Trinity? “Father, Son and Holy Spirit” is the form of words we use to describe God. But what does that mean?

Mike Higton, theologian at the University of Durham, set himself the challenge of explaining the Holy Trinity in words of one syllable:

“So there is God, the one to whom we pray, the one to whom we look, to whom we call out, the one who made the world and who loves all that has been made. And then there is God by our side, God once more the one with whom we pray; God in the life of this man who shares our life, this man who lives the life of God by our side, and who pours out his life in love for us. And then there is God in our hearts, God in our guts, God one more time, the stream in which we dip our toes, the stream in which we long to swim, the stream which filled the Son and can fill us too, and bear us in love back to our source.”

Link to the full blog post: click here: The Trinity explained in words of one syllable | Psephizo

God: the to whom, and with whom, who is also within. You may or may not feel qualified to write a book of theology now, but I suspect you have a better appreciation of the Holy Trinity- and you have gained wisdom as a result. Wisdom shared by Mike Higton, me, and now you. And next time someone asks us “What about the Trinity, then?” we may feel wise enough to pass on what we have discovered.

Wisdom is for sharing! Here’s a prayer you may like to use:

O Lord our God,
help us to know you when we pray.
Help us to know you as the one to whom we pray;
help us to know you as the one with whom we pray;
help us to know you as the one in whom we pray.
Help us to know you, and to love you,
and to live our lives for you,
one God in three,
Holy Trinity. Amen.