Gifts in the Woods

Much of my life has been spent outside. Beauty, peace, mystery, adventure, and the best air are found there. The woods are outside. Call them a forest if you wish. The woods hold mystery, beauty, certainly adventure and the woods in winter certainly have crisp fresh air. While there are other ecosystems, especially prairies, which bring me delight. My confession to you: my preference, especially in winter, and spring, would be the woods. There is freedom in recognition of the truth…put me in the woods.

Have you spent time in the woods?

Here are four gifts you will find:

Stillness…the presence of many large, fibrous plants with a nearly infinite number of trunks, branches and twigs absorb sound. These same tree parts stop wind. Even the wind is subdued in the woods. While the tops of trees may be moving, things on the forest floor are still in comparison. The greater the density of trees the more stillness there is.

Mystery…stand silently in the woods. Peer into, around and between the trunks of the trees. Questions begin to come to mind. What is there? What animal is watching me, but I cannot see it? What happens here at night? Where are the deer right now? How many small things have heard my foot falls? The woods are filled with the unknown, mystery is abundant.

Life…begin with the trees. Think of the root systems unseen on the forest floor. While there are individual trees, the roots of each tree are intertwined with every other tree nearby. The roots of the forest floor bring life to everything above ground. In appearance, they would be a jumbled, disorganized mass. They are not. Just the opposite, there is precise order. Every root hair functions to supply water, and nutrients to the plant, whether a tree, shrub, or sapling. Lichen on the bark, moss, insects in season, birds and mammals, a forest is filled with life…even in winter. What does it feel like to be surrounded with life? Go into the woods.

Beauty…this aspect of the woods is inescapable. Stillness is beautiful. There is beauty in mystery. And only time spent in the woods will allow one to begin to comprehend the beauty found in them. What happens when a human is surrounded with beauty? One place to find the answer…the woods.

My mind has been filled with an infinitely greater truth today.

In the few words you have just read about woods, we have acknowledged, we have recognized, the gifts we find in them. Recognition that the woods are filled with sources of pleasure and delight for a human quickly fade against this truth. Here it is:

God lives in anyone who acknowledges Jesus is the Son of God. This an earthquake of truth, a truth hurricane of vast proportion. Now, let’s phrase that differently. Any human who confesses or accepts that Jesus Christ is the Son of God has God within them.

Is this the most preposterous idea you’ve ever heard? Almighty, all powerful, all knowing, everywhere present God IN US? But there is more.

Anyone who recognizes Jesus Christ as the Son of God lives in God! Imagine, little me, little you, living in God. Would He allow us? He will, He does.

Don’t take only my word, God said it first,

“If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God.” 1 John 4:15