Writer and artist Danae Templeton explores how noticing the small wonders of creation — a violet along a forest path, a spider's web in a forgotten corner — is a sacred spiritual practice. Drawing on the idea that enjoying God glorifies Him, she invites readers to step outside, open their eyes, and receive the everyday world as an act of connection with its Maker.
This article originally appeared in the Just Between Us Weekly Digital Magazine.
By Danae Templeton
I speak the language of Scripture best when I’m in the woods.
I pass a stream and think, “As a deer pants for the water, so my soul longs after you” (Ps. 42:1). I lower myself to the mosses, a forest in miniature, and think, “Even the rocks cry out” (Luke 19:40). I hear the call of the birds and remember, “…not one of them will fall to the ground” (Matt. 10:29). See the irises bent with spring rain—“A bruised reed he will not break” (Isa. 42:3). Pass under rhododendron arching over my path—“Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere” (Ps. 84:10).
It’s too easy and natural to walk through my home and see only the tasks that need to be done. I need to get that stain out. The air filter needs to be replaced. I should really paint that door. Even living in the middle of a forest, on the edge of national parkland, I forget to be drawn outside.
But when I do step on that trail, in the sound of my steps, the worries fall away. I am more able to sit still and know—to follow the rhythm of the forest.
The Sacred Act of NoticingNoticing, to me, is a sacred act. Christ told us to have hearts like children—one way to do so is to notice every leaf and caterpillar that cross our path. Childlike wonder is a beautiful way to praise.
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