Lake Bonnie Park

I went to Lake Bonny Park for this field trip, and I stayed there for at least 45 minutes yesterday at 5pm. I went with Erin and we walked around and found a place to sit in the grass by the lake. I spent about twenty minutes in silence and read the poems by Mary Oliver. I really liked a couple of them, especially the poem "Praying". As i read this, it reminded me that we are supposed to be real with God. Yes, we need to have respect and reverence for God as we pray, but to be honest and real with God is so important. If we are in a relationship with Christ and God the "father", then we should be real with God. I love to think of it like the Geicho commercials when they have a normal person telling their story, then they have a movie star with a deep voice and dramatic voice tell their story. The real honest version was the real story. We should pray in the same manner sometimes. Yes with reverence, but when  things are going rough, God wants the real truth and we should trust Him enough to be honest with Him (its not like he doesn't know what we are thinking anyways). The first lines in the poem "It doesn't have to be the blue iris, it could be weeds in a vacant lot", tells it all. Also, i sat back and just watched the nature, and i was thinking that the poem made sense. Why should we try to spruce up our words to a God who is so majestic already and magnificent. His creation is beautiful and perfect, until we mess up. We have sinful nature and the Spirit of God is what makes us beautiful, not our majestic words. Just because we pray in a beautiful language that is spruced up, does not mean that it makes our prayers bigger. I would think, that a God who created everything so beautiful and perfect, is a God who wants the real person, the real truth with respect and reverence. Not a buttered up language that we try to make pretty with our words. We cannot flatter God, i mean LOOK AT WHAT HE CREATED! One question about Mary Oliver that came to my mind was why does she format her poems like this? She puts breaks in the middle of sentences and her lines are sporadic all over the page. In the poem "messenger", i absolutely loved the first line "My work is loving the world". Not much needs to be said about this, but if everyone's job was to love the world, I wonder how much better the world would be? Nature and creation is a good way to appreciate and be in Awe of God and when we love God, we have to love His creation. It is so beautiful and perfect in many ways. 

Awe of God

The crystal waters, The green grass

The tall trees, The chirping birds

All reminders of the Awe of God

My image in the water

Imago Dei?

My sinful nature 

verses mother nature

Imago Dei?

One purpose, one plan

One creator, One God

But Imago Dei?

What is 

imago Dei?

Is it the wonder of creation?

The image of God reflected upon the waters face?

In nature we see

Imago dei

Which makes me stand

In awe of Nature

In Awe of my Creator