Fall gracefully nudges out Summer….
Trees kissed with yellows and oranges greeted my daughter Hannah and me as we entered Camp Zion, at the upper end of Door County, Wisconsin. On 9/11, as our country remembered that tragic day, I taught a Nature Journaling class infused with hope to ladies at a retreat. As our world swirls with fear and uncertainty, worship nature journaling helps us seek God in his creative world and brings peace to our inner soul. Although a full generation has grown up in the 25 years between then and now, our world is still unstable and groans. Wars, gas prices, our grocery bill, and climate change threaten to upend the strongest of souls.
5 Simple Steps to Peace
- Find an outdoor nature-laced spot (garden, park, preserve)
- Use your body senses (ears, eyes, nose, hands) to connect with God in nature
- Observe from large landscapes to tiny things.
- Journal discoveries using words, pictures, numbers.
- Sandwich nature journaling with prayer and scripture.
Be Bold – Action Step
Carve out time with God in nature, using a blank page or sketchbook. Spend 35-50 minutes nature journaling. Note your emotions from the beginning of journaling to its conclusion.
For a structured worship nature journal experience, email me at this address, and I will email you a first lesson.
Prairies for Nature Journaling
Consider a prairie location for journaling and step into wonder. At a recent Master Naturalist prairie class, I marveled at the uniquely designed plants but was saddened that 99% of Illinois’s prairie has disappeared. Some consider the prairie to be just weeds. Not so! I discovered the 8-foot cup plant that holds water for goldfinches to drink and the yellow-flowered compass plants with resin that Native Americans used as chewing gum. It’s an amazing, complex ecosystem of thousands of species that help a community of birds, insects, plants, and mammals to thrive.
Morton Arboretum, photo credit: Cynthia Bolds
Refining Fire
Prairie smoke has a double meaning. Nestled within the prairie, this plant has pale pink wispy blossoms resembling a puff of pink smoke. The other prairie smoke is the much-needed fire in late fall that consumes dead plant material, making way for regrowth. This plant is resilient and survives the fire with deep roots, with new life bursting up come spring.
Refining fire is important in the Christian life too. Trials are like fire that burns away character flaws and sins that hinder. Through trials, we also become stronger to withstand storms. To survive refining fire is to allow our roots to grow deep through a pursuit of Jesus Christ. He provides strength, wisdom, and comfort to help us survive fires. And like the tough prairie smoke, we will bloom with vibrancy once the fire is extinguished.
“You have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith–more precious than gold that perished though it is tested by fire–may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
– I Peter 1:6b-7
Seeking More Ways to Find God in Nature?
The Illinois fall prairie is bursting with color! Purple, pink, blue, and yellow flora…
Foto Friday! This itsy-bitsy cardinal fledgling fell out of our arborvitae.
The Painted Lady Butterfly migration has taken flight.
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