Have you ever looked at a map of the world?
Look at Texas with me just for a second.
That picture, with the Panhandle and the Gulf Coast,
and the Red River and the Rio Grande. . .
As soon as anyone anywhere in the world
looks at it, they know what it is.
It’s Texas.
~Excerpt from Anonymous Author

The photos make it obvious I am in Texas, but knowing that I’m living anywhere in God’s world is equally as obvious because of the undeniable iconic images of His reality found everywhere in Creation. For example, here as elsewhere, I can see the colors of earth, sky, and flowery faces that tell of His glory and love of beauty.  Also the touch of His hands can be felt in the warmth of the sun, and in the changing seasons and periods of resting, His rhythm of life becomes clear.  In the great lights of the sky, I can glimpse the shining of His everlasting faithfulness.  In the quiet of the night, the stars and the moon that He flung into space speak His name and tell of His mighty power.  I can see God’s face in all peoples because we are all made in His image.  In the vitality that shines forth in those faces, I can see God’s strength.  In the laughter of their voices I become aware of the Lord’s goodness and grace.  From the insights of wisdom seekers, I can hear His voice and His truths.  In my relationships, His love is made known; in my deepest yearnings, I feel His presence and sense His divine design.  In unforeseen moments of wonder, awe, or passion I feel stirrings of His creative spirit.  In my soul searching, His nearness is palpable, and in fears that come in the darkness of the night, I encounter His comforting companionship.  In my brokeness and suffering His mercy shines through, and when my flesh is wounded and my body bleeds, the face of Jesus who shed His blood for my redemption shines as brightly here as anywhere else on earth.

Wealth and honor come from You; You are ruler of all things.  In Your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all.  Now, our God, we give You thanks, and praise Your glorious name.  ~1 Chronicles 29:12-13  ✝

So will I build my altars in the fields,
And blue sky my fretted dome shall be,
And the sweet fragrances that the wild flower yields
Shall be the incense I will yield to thee.
~Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Adams, Coleridge, and countless others have thought of the natural world as a temple and of places within Creation as altars in a sanctuary.  Another voice adds a similar thought to that throng when in one of his devotionals, Max Lucado tells the reader that “Nature is God’s first missionary.  Where there is no Bible there are sparkling stars.  Where there are no preachers, there are springtimes. . .If a person has nothing but nature, then nature is enough to reveal something about God.”  He also notes that Paul tells us in Scripture that “God’s law is not something alien, imposed on us from without, but woven into the very fabric of our creation.”  The word “altar” that both Adams and Coleridge used is mentioned well over 300 times in the Bible.  Often built of wood or stone, the altar and the area around the altar are thought to be endowed with greater holiness, and the ones that are elevated are considered even more favorable for prayer since they are nearer heaven.  And so we bring these pieces of nature’s altars into our gardens not to worship them or any other idol but to revere and be close to the Holy One whose Hands of which they are made.  If you look close enough at anything in Creation, God’s autograph is written all over it, and so it keeps us ever mindful of how good He is and how important it is to praise Him for all that He has made and done.

Now this I know: The Lord gives victory to His anointed. He answers him from His heavenly sanctuary with the victorious power of His right hand.  ~Psalm 20:6

The disciples are drawn to the high altars with magnetic certainty,
to enter the wilderness and seek, in the primal patterns of nature,
a magical union with beauty. . .
knowing that a great Presence hovers over the ranges. . .
~Edited excerpt from Ansel Adams

A garden, public or private, large or small, is not made up of just flowers, shrubs, and trees.  We who work the soil try to mimic “the primal patterns of nature” by enhancing our own personal garden “temples” with, among other things, elements like water, wood, or stone.  In so doing our hope is to create what  Adams called a “magical union with beauty.”  One way we can accomplish this is by adding portals into our growing sanctuaries that are made of wood, iron, or stone as we do with some of the “pews” we add for resting or surveying purposes.  Another way is to add light features like the one in the photo.  Water can also be added to the mix by incorporating a pond or a fountain.  It really doesn’t take all that much to create a little piece of Eden for feeding the soul.

. . .Which is greater: the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred?  ~Matthew 23:19  ✝

I was not looking now at an unusual flower arrangement.
I was seeing what Adam had seen on the morning of his creation –
the miracle, moment by moment, of naked existence.
~Aldous Huxley

Wow, what a breathtaking view Adam must have had!  Even though I can only imagine what it was like to have been the first human to lay eyes on Creation, there are times when I stand in a garden and get a small sense of the incredible thrill of it.  Although I’m not sure when this “earthly” love affair of mine began, I do remember that mother had lots of pictures of me as a toddler in a field of wildflowers, a field which I’m sure was full of wondrous things that could well have planted the seed in my soul.  Or maybe it was because of Southern California’s spellbinding, fragrant flowers or maybe the inviting, salty scent of the sea and the frequent trips wagging a pail and shovel to the beach.  The shoreline of the beautiful blue Pacific was where I first became captivated by seashells, by the fishermen on the piers, by sandcastles fashioned out of wet sand, and by the prospect of chasing and/or dodging the little running waves.  My love affair with the earth could also have come from what I experienced on our summer trips to Texas where the earthy smells of livestock, newly cut hay, and recently plowed black earth were strong and rich.  Or perhaps it was the times we’d chase fireflies in the dark or run after butterflies or dragonflies or listen to the hum of bees in the small Texas town where my grandparents lived.  Then there was the lying down at night on grassy patches of Texas soil, away from the cement and noise of the city, and looking up at the vast starry sky that could have been the catalyst.  But, you know what, not knowing the when or why really doesn’t matter; what’s significant is that through my early encounters with earth’s delights I came to know at a very early age that a Holy Hand much bigger than mortal man’s was in all that “passed into my dancing blood.”

Great are the works of the LORD; they are pondered by all who delight in them.  Glorious and majestic are His deeds, and His righteousness endures forever.  He has caused his wonders to be remembered; the LORD is gracious and compassionate.  ~Psalm 111:2-4 (NIV)   ✝

Great is the sun, and wide he goes
Through empty heaven with repose;
And in the blue and glowing days
More thick than rain he showers his rays.
~From SUMMER SUN, by Robert Louis Stevenson

The round, golden face of the great sun began flooding our prairie with its wide showers of intensely relentless rays after a sweet spell early in July when we were blessed with a good amount of rain and cooler temps for several days.  The sizzling siege has since raged on until this afternoon when at last its fever broke from a north wind that brought in some rain and dropped the temps below the century mark.  The landscape quickly soaked up what there was of the precious liquid, so quick in fact that things seemed discernibly greener within minutes.  There were no high winds nor long, torrential downpours, just a couple of bursts of moderately heavy rain.  And now, even though there are household chores needing to be done, I find myself sitting, watching, and waiting for yet another round of what my ears have been longing to hear and what my eyes relish seeing.  The temperature has fallen to 80, and the long term forecasters are predicting the possibility that our highs may be under a 100 the rest of the month.  What a blessing that would be!  Praise God that our need is again met by His mercy and grace.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort. . .  ~2 Corinthians 1:3  ✝

The single harmony produced by all the heavenly bodies
singing and dancing together springs from one source
and ends by achieving one purpose, and has rightly bestowed the name
not of “disordered” but of “ordered universe” upon the whole.
~Aristotle

What an extraordinary piece of work the human body is!  Nine months ago I had a stroke, and to save my life a surgeon had to remove two clots from my brain.  Not only did I survive the stroke and the delicate surgery to remove the clots, but I also have no paralysis or residual physical or mental limitations.  Moreover, my brain healed quickly enough that 2 months ago my family and I took a two week trip to the UK and Paris which demanded excessive walking and climbing.  So it is that almost daily I’m amazed at the Lord’s goodness and the body’s ability to heal itself.  Humans sometimes focus more on what’s wrong with their bodies than on what’s right with them.  Since we were all masterfully designed by God’s divine hands, the human body and mind are resilient and have the ability to heal themselves, even against the odds.  In addition, we are loved by a merciful Father who, when implored prayerfully, lends His supernatural curative powers.  Such revelation makes it abundantly clear that as God’s children we must acknowledge and be thankful daily for the goodness in Creation, in its Author and Finisher, and in His and the body’s ability to heal.  Scripture tells us that a mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.  At the heart of life and Creation there is a peace, a healing peace, and that peace not only makes us well but also takes the edge off what’s not as it should be in a fallen world.

Deep peace of the running water to you.
Deep peace of the flowing air to you.
Deep peace of the quiet earth to you.
Deep peace of the shining stars to you.
Deep peace of the Son of Peace to you.
~Fiona MacLeod

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.  ~Philippians 4:6-7   ✝

If not ignored,
nature will cultivate in the gardener
a sense of well-being and peace.
The gardener may find
deeper meaning in life by paying attention
to the parablesof the garden.
~Norman H. Hansen

The “little plant of reverence in my soul’s garden” grows better and stronger when it is not just “watered” in a formal sanctuary on the Sabbath.  Moments that evoke reverence are something I seek on a daily basis, and I find the “moisture” I need right outside my door.  There is never a shortage of that kind of “water” in my yard especially when it comes, as Proust said, “saturated with a bouquet of silence” that falls like rain from the earth’s shy and quiet presences.

Long before man built temples with sanctuaries and altars, the natural world was his place of praise and worship.  Jesus even frequently went into a garden to be in intimate, prayerful communion with the Father.  Nature teaches quiet lessons to the gardener who chooses to live within the paradigm of the garden, writes on Hansen, and we see in Scripture that the Lord too often employed elements of the natural world in His parables/teachings.  I may have initially begun my garden simply because of a love for flowers and their paramours, but once I began feeling God’s presence in its midst, I deemed it a sanctuary in which I would seek to learn the Holy One’s ways and honor His glory.

Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them.  ~Exodus 25:8   ✝

Bright flowers, whose home is everywhere
Bold in maternal nature’s care
And all the long year through the heir of joy and sorrow,
Methinks that there abides in thee some concord with humanity…
~William Wordsworth

Not all the flowers in the photo are daisies but all are bold, bright, and beautiful members of the same family.  And Wordsworth’s assumption that there seems to abide in them “some concord with humanity” is astute since all have coexisted for eons right alongside mankind.  Every flower in the photo, as well as a host of others, belong to the Asteraceae family, a family of plants over 40 million years old.  Asteraceae are found everywhere on the planet except Antarctica and the extreme Arctic; none of them need much tending; and all can be grown with very little effort in a wide variety of soils.  In additon, members of the Asteraceae family are pollinated by beneficial insects which make them invaluable assets for farmers and gardeners alike.  Methinks, then, that’s why “bright flowers, whose home is everywhere” are as hallowed an echo of Eden as is humanity.

May God bless the soil and may it forever be wholesome and fruitful. . .
May there always be sufficient water, warmth, and light for earth’s crops. . .
May God bless all seed-bearing plants for their bounty of food and flower. . .
May seeds never fail to burst into the fullness of their kind. . .
May God bless the farmer’s labors and the gardener’s work. . .
May all the world’s crops be plentiful and good. . .
May God bless us all, great and small. . .
May earth’s peoples be good stewards of God’s Creation. . .
And may summer perpetually reveal God’s wondrous ways.

Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.   ~John 1:3 (NIV)   ✝

The rolling prairies’ billowy swell,
Breezy upland and timbered dell,
Stately mansion and hut forlorn,
All are hidden by walls of corn.
~From WALLS OF CORN by Ellen P. Atherton

Late July and August paint heaven’s dome with soft shades of blue while the land below is brandished into bands of brown–wide bands of brown that stretch far and away across the Texas prairies.  Some of these bands are made up of row after row of corn plants that were once tall and slender and green.  Now that their ears of golden corn have been removed all that remains are acres and acres and miles and miles of brittle, brown stalks.  Since the pretty, shiny silks and the hum of the bees that feasted on the pollen-laden tassels are gone, farmers are in the process of cutting down the dead stalks, exposing the furrowed rows beneath that stripe the earth with a beauty of their own.  Although the land is currently bare, it yet speaks of holy promise and the field mice are dining like kings on the remaining nubbins still rooted in the fertile soil.

God’s continuing provisions and the uninterrupted reoccurrence of Eden’s cycles in the Genesis saga immeasurably comfort those who love and/or work close to the land.  They know that only a Divine Hand could have set such things in motion because they’ve seen time and time again that Creation is far too cleverly and intricately designed to be the result of a random, cosmic “big bang.”  Those kinds of indiscriminate explosions and sparks are finite, and there is simply nothing in them that guarantees prosperous continuance or that proves the faithful genius of a clear and lasting purpose in what they initiate.  The resulting random events come and go with no rhyme or reason.  Whereas in God’s Creation, verse and design can be found in everything; what He ordained in the beginning ceaselessly comes to pass.

There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under heaven. . .  ~Ecclesiastes 3:1   ✝