Nature's Healing Power: Embracing Outdoor Beauty for Renewal and Restoration

Can the beauty of nature, the rising and the setting of the sun, the wind blowing in the trees, and the reflection of life in still waters restore your soul?  I think yes. The summer allows me to spend more time outdoors. Biking, walking, and sitting outdoors seems to calm my spirit and renew my hope for the future.  David wrote about such things in Psalm 23.  "He leads me beside still waters, he restores my soul." If you read through the New Testament you find a significant number of times that Jesus would "Go up the mountain" to pray or meditate or rejuvenate. Science supports the idea of being outdoors as a part of physical, mental and emotional health. I think we all spend too much time looking at screens. I am certainly doing it too much.  I love the scripture verse where Jesus tells us that "I have come that you may have life and you might have it more abundantly." John 10:10 b  The picture below is from this year's High Adventure Trip.  I repeat that one of the themes for the trip and the summer has been "We are bound together by love."  So, spending time outdoors with people I love is like the ultimate great thing.  To drink in the beauty of the creation and walk through the creation with God's beloved is experiencing being led by God to a place of renewal, rejuvenation and restoration. Thanks be to God!

Along the way,

PN