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"When wisely trod, the path to God through Nature employs every faculty inherent in man." -Flower A. Newhouse, The Journey Upward

Finding God in Nature

Enlightenment and Healing

Lord of the Mountain, Jonathan Wiltshire
Lord of the Mountain We know that God can be approached by many paths, every one of them valid. As we mature spiritually, we perceive that wholeheartedness and worship with our entire being has to enter the path for a meeting with God. One path to illumination that has innumerable blessings for us is worshipping God through Nature. Here, you can meet the Creator face to face, yet very few venture into Nature with the purpose of making His acquaintance.

It is Nature that is the great healer and the restorer, the transformer and the instructor. Nature offers inward peace and benediction to all who will go out into its great expansiveness, for there, God is felt more closely, intimately, and gloriously. Appreciation of Nature’s beauty needs not only to be enjoyed, but individually expressed, that greater soul enrichment may be derived.

Excerpts on Nature

"When one experiences Nature through the eyes of inner perception, there is nothing commonplace in this kingdom. Such an approach to Nature requires reverence. In contrast to a casual or indifferent attitude, the sensitive individual looks upon Nature as a sacred creation of God that deserves to be valued and revered."
–Flower A. Newhouse, "Angels of Nature"

"God is in every form of creation. Here you can meet the Creator face to face, if anywhere on Earth, yet very few venture into Nature with the purpose of making His acquaintance."
–Flower A. Newhouse, "The Journey Upward"

"When wisely trod, the path to God through Nature employs every faculty inherent in man. In Nature, beauty shines in all its pristine essence before us. It is for us to newly discover and translate this beauty to our spirits and our senses."
–Flower A. Newhouse, "The Journey Upward"

"Journey to the mountains for healing and enlightenment, and then return to the plains and cities to radiate the Light of what you may have gleaned."
–Flower A. Newhouse, "Songs of Deliverance"

"In these wilderness areas, we will find, if we have the heart, both spiritually and physically, to journey into the back country, that where there are no roads, only footpaths of the deer or made by the feet of men, we will come into an area that is virgin, that is holy, where communion is continually being served, where every day is the Sabbath, where every rock is an altar, where the breezes bring you instructions if you listen to them properly."
–Flower A. Newhouse, "Springtime's Festival", 128-2

"Nature is like another dimension and we know to approach it with faculties that we do not use perhaps in the same way at other times. Nature, whether it is approached in our gardens or in the wilderness, or on mountain peaks or in the countryside, is now the enlightener. She requires from those who comes to her not the desire to be entertained. If we are to be enlightened in the wilderness, we must not go there just for vacation, just to relax, but we should go there spiritually on tiptoe with all our faculties alert, and we should know that in going to Nature, we are approaching a storehouse filled with treasure, deep potent, spiritual treasures, treasures intended to be released after the very potent season of Eastertide."
–Flower A. Newhouse, "Springtime's Festival", 128-2

"Appreciate and love and reverence the Great Architect of this cosmos that made everything as it is."
–Flower A. Newhouse, "May's Lovely Differences", 500-2

"We want to see the beauty that God is painting for us constantly to our visible sight and feel with all our inner beings what is behind that outer beauty."
–Flower A. Newhouse, "May's Lovely Differences", 500-2

"I think of how limited the human being is and allows himself to be. He’ll plant one mustard seed and concentrate on that, when he could plant the seeds of giant sequoias and redwoods and have comparable attainments. We are so meager and so petty and so stingy with the Divine potential indwelling us, when God is not. He has sprinkled the heavens with galaxies without number, and suns and planets."
–Flower A. Newhouse, "Spiritual Qualities Maytime Represents", 100-1

"The more we have of flowers and shrubs and trees around our home, the more sure we are to be in the emanations of light of these transcendent intelligences who guard and guide and nurture Nature from within."
–Flower A. Newhouse, "The Third Eye and What It Signifies", 161-1

"There is nothing to me that equals the inspiration of the out of doors. Books are beautiful. We enjoy them. We are inspired by them, but give me the book of nature any day, and its hills and its valleys and its lakes and its shores and its clouds and its sunshine and everything it has. It is a wonderful thing to find God in nature."
–Flower A. Newhouse, "The Awesomeness of December", 519-1

Quotes by other Nature Mystics

"Climb the mountains, and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees, The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves."
–John Muir, "Our National Parks"

"Talk of mysteries! Think of our lives in Nature -- daily to be shown matter, to come in contact with it - rocks, trees, wind on our cheeks! the solid earth! the actual world!"
–Henry David Thoreau

"Come forth into the light of things, Let Nature be your teacher."
–William Wordsworth

"All woodland whispers hastened to the shrine; the countryside was come, eager and joyful to its spirit's home."
–Evelyn Underhill

"Commonly we stride through the out-of-doors too swiftly to see more than the most obvious and prominent things. For observing Nature, the best pace is a snail’s pace."
–Edwin Way Teale, "Circle of the Seasons

"And this our life, exempt from public haunt, find tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stone, and good in everything."
–Shakespeare

"In this light my spirit saw through all things and I recognized God in grass and plants."
–Baney

"All blades of grass, wood and stone are one."
–Meister Eckhart

"It is wise that you come to attune, to respect, and admire. Respect and reverence may become the doorways to higher realities of Nature. It is only by softly knocking on the doors with humility that attunement may be slowly achieved.
–Michael J. Roads, "Talking with Nature"

"Never a day passes but that I do myself the honor to commune with some of Nature's varied forms."
–George Washington Carver

"On every mountain height Is rest."
–Goethe

"As you sit on the hillside, or lie prone under the trees of the forest, or sprawl wet-legged by a mountain stream, the great door, that does not look like a door, opens."
–Stephen Graham, The Gentle Art of Tramping

"My heart is tuned to the quietness that the stillness of Nature inspires."
–Hazrat Inayat Khan

"Nature itself is a holy icon. It is not unlike a stained glass window, through which sacred light shines and inspires."
–Jay McDaniel

"Nature offers a way to discover the riches of our own souls rather than the powers of the ego."
–Thomas Moore

"No resolution to the crisis facing the wild Earth will achieve more than a modicum of success without an integration of spiritual practice into our lives."
–Jack Turner, "Abstract Wild"

Questhaven Retreat is dedicated to serving one's vital need to prayerfully repledge themselves. Here, in the quiet haven of peaceful hills, individuals from all walks of life may come to reconsecrate themselves to God and Christ, and find answers to their innermost quest. Sunday Services 10:45am.

Christ Mysticism Discipleship Meditation Angels Nature

Christward Principles

The Living Christ The Living Christ is the Lord of angels and of men and the model of our own becoming. His service is the broadcasting of the Divine Christ Spirit, the light of redemption. His influence awakens in us the Christing of our own natures.

Christian Mysticism Christian Mysticism is simply a method of reverence and devotion to God. It is a path of attainment which leads to the Divine Reality - to first-hand knowing of God. The mystical path stresses the way of Divine union with God through illumination.

The Way of Discipleship The Way of Discipleship is a way of drawing ever closer to the Divine Presence. It is a voluntary surrender of the entire self to the service of God. It pays great attention to spiritual realities and goals inspiring us toward inner growth.

Meditation and Prayer Meditation and Prayer are the disciplines that most directly draw us Godward and into the inner worlds. During these moments, we consciously purify ourselves of worldly or personal preoccupations and center ourselves wholly upon consciousness of God.

The Angelic Kingdom The Angelic Kingdom consists of beings created by God. They, like mankind, press toward the goal of perfection and union with the Supreme Spirit. Angels are purer and more spiritual than man. Their very spirituality readily makes them mediators between Heaven and Earth.

God in Nature Nature provides healing and enlightenment. When wisely trod, the path to God through nature employs every faculty inherent in man. In nature, beauty shines in all its pristine essence before us. It is for us to newly discover and translate this beauty to our spirits and our senses.