God created human beings with five senses that absorb the world around them. With our eyes, we take in the world around us and see things are they are. With our nose, we are able to smell and discern the pleasant and the repulsive. With our ears, we are able to listen to birds sing and waves crash on the shore. With touch, we feel the world coming to us in soft and gentle ways or threatening and alarming ways.Every sense is a pipe line into the soul depositing God's creative design. Beauty by definition is this:
"the quality present in a thing or person that gives intense pleasure or deep satisfaction to the mind, whether arising from sensory manifestations (as shape, color,sound etc.),"
Let's re-read what I just wrote...." the quality present in a thing or person that gives intense pleasure or deep satisfaction."
The Psalmist said, “One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple. (Psalm 27:4) Also, “Splendor and majesty are before Him; strength and beauty are in His sanctuary” (Psalm 96:6). Beauty is something that is of God. The Creator Artist set before him on his palet of nothingness a sense of beauty that gives us pleasure to experience and also deep satisfaction.
It happens at a gorgeous sunset. Someone sighs and breaths deeply and breaths in the beauty that they are looking at. Earlier this week, Gwen and I went to the symphony. WE did not recognize one single piece of music played. But we fully enjoyed one particular piece that was loud with the brass instruments in one section while the strings made sounds like waterfalls upon waterfalls. We both looked at each other after the piece ended and said "That was so beautiful." We each recognized what the beautiful music had truly ministered to our souls.
At Potter's Inn, one of the three shaping values we have is "beauty." We want our retreat to be a place filled with beauty. Flowers abounding. Tables that call your name to sit down and enjoy and meals that are more than eating food. The food is beautifully presented and makes you feel at home---makes you feel comforted.
We have a place on the 35 acre retreat that I'm envisioning what you see in this beautiful image here. A garden--a meditative garden with a waterwheel flowing with the fresh spring water from our historic spring on site. The pump house is already there and has been used for scores of years for the cabin's residents to get their water. As I've walked the property many times, I've always wanted a water feature where the sounds of water falling could be heard. We need such things to help us escape from the noise we listen to on our TV's, Iphones, and music players. In quiet, the heart is arrested at silence not mega-decimals. The soul is quieted by still waters---the Hebrew prayer poet reminds us. It's going to be a beautiful, inviting and resting place for thousands of people in the future to come and enjoy.
So through the fall, I'm hoping we can make another beautiful spot at the retreat where people might come and sit in the shadows of Aspens and Colorado Blue Spruce. I "see" a couple of benches inviting you to come and sit and stay awhile where you might take off the shoes of hurry and worry. I'm seeing the waterwheel turn just as the Potter's wheel turns and with every turn unloading it's precious content of cool water cascading down over moss stones and into a small receiving pond.
It would be a place where men might pray and woman might weep. It may be a place where vows are heard joining a man to a a woman for a life long journey. It would be a place of solitude where we might find ourselves not alone at all but fully in the beautiful presence of the Lord.
We've dug the pond and thanks be to God--it's holding water. Now, we've found a place in South Carolina that makes waterwheels. We're going to have an 8 ft high waterwheel--large enough to capture your eyes and strong enough to carry the water needed and envisioned to fall and run into the receiving pond.
This is a project that will require some help--financial and labor wise. If it's something you felt you wanted to help with, please contact us.
I'm envisioning several clusters of Aspen Trees. Five Colorado Blue Spruce trees and rocks. We're going to make this a Legacy Garden where folks can help fund the project by buying a tree in someone's honor and we'll plant it. We are going to do this for our first grandson, Caleb. Gwen and I are going to buy a Blue Spruce and plant it near the pond this weekend when Caleb and his parents come to visit.
If you want to consider helping us, here's a price guideline of what the costs are:
Waterwheel: $2,000
Shipping of Waterwheel: $300
Aspen Tree: $50 each (we need 12).
Colorado Blue Spruce: $100 each (We need 5).
Benches: $150 (we need three)
Here's a link for you to help with a donation should you want to participate with us.. We will have a plaque made indicating the gifts that were madefor the trees and other gifts and have it present in the Garden.
As a visionary, one never really knows if something one "sees" will actually come to fruition. But in this case we've started it by the digging of the receiving pond and tested it to see if it can hold water. When the evidence came in this week that the water is holding, I decided to see what kind of response we might get and I hope many of you can and will help!
Blessings,
Steve