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[[http://www.jesusnetwork.eu/de/doku.php/jn_de_2012_07_27|Deutsche Version]] [[Start|| Wiki Start]]
[[topics_collection_iv|| Topics Collection iv ]]

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======Fantastic Nature ...======


Friday, July 27, 2012. Nature is fantastic. We have been visiting the 
Breitach Klamm recently, a valey of stone in southern Germany. A little creak
is flowing through the rock fragments, which in the winter can swell to
a deep torrential stream. There is a little trail through the valey ... and
back over the mountains which surround it.

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**Beauty in Every Country ...**

There are so many beauties in every country. Have you seen the wide countryside
of Siberia? Have you been in the Rockys in the United States? Have you travelled
Japan or China? Fantastic nature, Forests, Mountains ... even in the middle of
Europe the Alps and the North Sea is wonderful and provides a place to enjoy
and to live to humans and animals. It seems that every country has been given
tremendous treasures! Each given a rich environment ...
 
The mountains are full of little trails, where one can hike and enjoy the
scenic views over valeys and mountain peaks. But most of the nature looks like 
it must have been hundreds of years ago. Human interaction is limited to
building alpine huts here and there, and to building ski pistes and various
leisure infrastructure.  
 
The same is true for the coasts, where beaches and cliffs seem as they have been
for centuries. Our view today coincides with the views and impressions of our
ancestors. Our joy links us to our fathers and forefathers. But modern technology
has reached nature. One can sit on the mountain top today, with a fast internet
connection. One can answer emails and take care of academic activities ... then
focussing back on the beauty of nature and starting the descent.

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**Care for your Environment! ...**

The bible tells the story that nature has been given to menkind, to spread into it, 
to live in it, to take care of it. Nature is our living place - the whole earth is
given to mankind. Nature is given to us to provide food to us in terms of plants
and animals. It is given to us to provide space to us to build our houses and towns.
And it is given to us to enjoy it, to play, to live, to love, to take care, to 
be a responsible leader and head. 
 
The relationship of the Christian community to the creation has been moving between
two extremes. On the one hand, the preservation of the creation has been a high
good of Christians. There are those Christians taking care of nature and 
our environment, to live in a way which
keeps the environment intact, to care and foster and work for it. There are also 
others, who care less - some even with the theological argument that God will create
a new heaven and a new earth. But this second stream has never gained strong
influence, except that it goes along with our general human ignorance ... Sincere
Christians will have a heart for nature and all its components and inhabitants!
 
But there seems much more in the beauty of nature than just a present to enjoy it.
God is talking to us through the beauties, through the structures and colours and
forms. It is his creativity which is mirrored into our immediate environment, 
his power and creativity from microscopic wonders to the huge structures such as
massive mountains and cloud fields. 
(Roland Potthast)
[[http://www.jesusnetwork.eu/en/doku.php/topics_collection_iv|... more texts]]
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