from a distance

On another day, in another season and at another time, I always felt blessed and refreshed to be daily working outside and to be able to witness the changes of the seasons. A forest along the road would now look to be an impenetrable green wall, when compared with just a few months back, the horizon was filled with the leafless skeletal remains of last year's trees with only the occasional green of the pines.

On another day I noted an odd contrast in plant life in the ditch opposite one of my work locations – even back then I was always looking for the natural beauty. A spreading group of wild climbing roses had intermingled with an outbreak of poison oak plants - it was as if the pink of the roses invited me to come closer and the poison oak was warning me to stay away. My solution was to admire the roses - from a distance.

The sighing sound a pine forest makes as the wind blows through the needles has a very relaxing effect on me and I'm grateful for this small part of God's creation. It's awe inspiring for me to drive below the trees that form green live canopies growing out over the road and at times completely overshadowing the passageway. It reminds me somewhat of an outdoor cathedral and then I think of the beautiful churches and cathedrals I've seen in this country and many others I viewed in Europe.

Some of the European ones were intact and others were in different stages of ruin from the bombing of World War II - all were awesome to behold. But as beautiful as these buildings are, the question occurred to me - what value does any worship structure have if no true worship of God takes place there? ec