Lent Great Outdoors & Thru the window challenges wk1

Both 'The Great Outdoors' and 'Thru the Window' Lent activities will appear each week on a Monday afternoon. Early today just so you can check in and see what we're doing!

Great Outdoors Challenge:
Welcome to “Get Outside in Lent.” Each week there will be six ideas for things to do outside and a celebration suggestion - because even in lent Sunday is a celebration day. Pick and choose what you would like to do. Change it and make it your own if you want to, or just do what it says. More than anything , enjoy being outside, take time to connect with nature, with anyone else you might be sharing this with, and with God.

Wk 1/ 'Trees' - 

Scots pine

You will live in joy and peace. The mountains and hills will burst into song,
and the trees of the field will clap their hands! Isaiah 55:12 

Active meditation
1/ Hug a tree. Remind yourself that God made this tree and he loves it just as he loves you.
2/ Find an evergreen tree. How would you describe the green of this tree? Be imaginative.
3/ Find a tree with no leaves on it yet. Can you see buds where the leaves will form?
4/ See if you can find a tree with catkins on it.
5/ Take a long view and see if you can tell trees apart by their shape and the sort of pattern that their branches make (you don't need to know what they are, just spot the difference).
6/ Take a few minutes (or longer if you like) to sit under the tree. Lean your back against it and see if the experience speaks to you in any way 

Find a nearby tree if possible. Be quiet for a moment or two (as long as works for you) to reflect on what trees mean to you, and what the world would be like if we didn't have them.

A prayer:
Creator God, thank you for trees.
Thank you for the beauty that they bring to our world,
for the life that they support,
and for the part they play in your creation.
Silence
We are sorry for those times and places around the world
when people have destroyed trees because they are greedy for something else.
Silence
Help us to value trees as part of your creation not just for what they can give us,
but because you made them and you love them.
Silence -
Stand for a moment and let the tree point you towards God. 
In the quietness, what is the still, small voice of God saying to you?
Spend a few moments thinking of people and situations that are on your heart...
place them into God's hands...
Amen.

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Thru the window - connecting with creation through Lent even when you can’t get outside. 

Wk 1/ 'Trees' 

You will live in joy and peace. The mountains and hills will burst into song, 

and the trees of the field will clap their hands! Isaiah 55:12

If you have a tree outside your window where you can see it, stand or sit and simply look.

If there is not one where you can see it, feel free to use the picture above – it is a Scots pine – or find a picture of a tree that you like in a book or on the internet, or close your eyes and imagine a tree that you know.

Meditation
Trees are amazing things. Their roots go down into the ground holding them upright and stable and taking precious nutrients from the soil to feed their growth. Moving up the tree the trunk and the branches become thinner and more delicate making patterns against the sky that are often very distinctive. And they support life. Whether there are leaves on your tree or not, there will be creatures living on or under the bark; perhaps birds nesting in the branches; even squirrels or owls hiding away.

Something to think about
Where are you rooted?
What do you need to feed your growth?
What gives you life? 

Prayer
Creator God, thank you for trees.
Thank you for the beauty that they bring to our world,
for the life that they support,
and for the part they play in your creation.
Silence
We are sorry for those times and places around the world
when people have destroyed trees because they are greedy for something else.
Silence
Help us to value trees as part of your creation not just for what they can give us,
but because you made them and you love them.
Silence -
Stand for a moment and let the tree point you towards God. 
In the quietness, what is the still, small voice of God saying to you?
Spend a few moments thinking of people and situations that are on your heart...
place them into God's hands...
Amen.