{{2011_07_08_t1.jpg}} {{2011_07_08_t2.jpg}} {{2011_07_08_t3.jpg}} [[http://www.jesusnetwork.eu/de/doku.php/jn_de_2011_07_08|Deutsche Version]] [[Start|| Wiki Start]] [[topics_collection_iii|| Topics Collection iii ]] ======The world can be wonderful! ...====== Friday, July 8, 2011. We have been hiking along the coast of Denmark yesterday. It was a fantastic walk, partly along the beach, partly high above the waves where the coast was building a cliff. Nature can be pleasant, providing us with impressions of high intensity, with deep colors of blue and green. {{2011_07_08.jpg }} **How great! ...** Nature can be fantastic. Everywhere in the world we can find it amazing, giving us lasting impressions of beauty and agility. Nature can be great, in the summer as in the winter. The sun and the clouds, the fields, the cows and the sea gulls, ... how wonderful! I had to think many times about artists yesterday. Artists have tried to capture the beauty of nature. The reality yesterday seemed to be something close to what we call kitsch. It was nearly too beautiful, too nice. In art today we like it to be more problematic. But it was not at all ...! Sometimes I think it would be good for us to find to a more naive way of life. Can we accept that there is beauty without problem? There is, at least in the moment, when we look at a scenery like I did yesterday. When we are in some public garden and admire the flowers or birds. When we read a good book which fires our phantasy ... {{ 2011_07_08_2.jpg}} **The Lord has made it ...** God has made the world. I believe that he made it extremely beautiful, and with the potential to be fully good. When we live in this world, we can open our mind and our heart to this beauty. It is telling us about the beauty of the Lord, of the creator of all these things. Christian faith is inviting us to a life with is rooted in the trust on the Lord. We are made to admire his ability, his unbelievable power. We are created to live with full faith in him, in his provision, and in his presence. He wants us to feel the joy which he put into his creation - the joy of a warm summer day, the joy of the continuing play of the clouds, the joy of the wind when it is swiftly cooling our bodies which are warmed by the sun. Writing all this, I realize that my holiday, which is nearly over, seems to be what it is supposed to be: a time-out, which helps you to gain new motivation and new strength. Thank you, Lord! [[http://www.jesusnetwork.eu/en/doku.php/topics_collection_iii|... more texts]]