Vicar’s July letter

Dear friends,
I love living in the Forest! I love the wonderful views from Littledean Hill Road or Blaize Bailey across the Severn Valley, from Symonds Yat along the Wye Valley, across the forest from ‘Place’ (the Giant’s Chair at Beechenhurst). I love riding along the Wye Valley from Chepstow through Tintern and up to Monmouth on the Harley. I love wandering through the Cyril Hart Arboretum near Speech House. I love walking around Woorgreens Lake, Speech House Lake, Cannop Ponds, Mallard’s Pike Lake or Soudley Ponds. I love the bluebells, the autumn colours, the deer, the boar, the smells. Awesome.
I used to live in the Peak District in Derbyshire and I loved walking across the moorland and through the valleys. I love Wales and Scotland and North Yorkshire and the Lake District and Northumbria. I love mountains and valleys, moorland and farmland. I love the variety of coastline that we have around the UK, little fishing villages and harbours, cliffs and hills, rocky outcrops, sandy beaches, old castles. I love collecting shells or pebbles, eating fish and chips and watching the sun go down while listening to the lapping of the water.
We live in an amazing part of the world and the variety of scenery within a day’s drive is simply incredible.
Sian and I have just come back from a trip to visit a retired work colleague who now lives in Arizona. We travelled down through the Rocky Mountains and back up via the Grand Canyon, Monument Valley and through some amazing National Parks in Utah. Absolutely amazing.
In previous travels, I have been fortunate enough to have seen stunning scenery and wildlife around the world, with Alaska, Hawaii, Canada, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Brazil being particularly memorable.
As Louis Armstrong said (or rather sang) ‘What a Wonderful World’. In the song, there is no mention of the source of all this wonder and beauty. As Christians, along with members of the other major faiths (and therefore the vast majority of the population of the world) we would think and talk of God as creator. We talk about seeing God, feeling God’s presence and understanding something of his awesome power through the wonders of his creation. In Paul’s letter to the Church in Rome he states “Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made.”
Are there places that you go to, or have been to, that have struck you as particularly beautiful? Are there places that you go to, or have been to, that help you to feel particularly close to God? Are there places that you go to, or have been to, that help you to understand and see God’s ‘eternal power’ and ‘divine nature’? I would love to hear your thoughts.
God Bless,