Stroll through our natural forests, and the wonders of nature will delight you. All you have to do is use your senses—look, listen, touch, and smell—to witness God’s majestic creations.

Scripture says that on the third day, God created vegetation, plants yielding seeds of every kind and bearing fruit (Genesis 1:9-13). And there is quite an assortment to witness. I love spotting the unusual, or at least, something I’ve not seen before, such as the bends in the tree and the puffball mushroom shown here.

In areas such as the Midwest, we can witness the seasonal changes of nature. The same scene takes on a new cloak with the passing months. How different the trees look throughout the year adorned in green leaves, then stunning reds and oranges, and finally branches glistening with snowflakes. Landscape artists realize these beautiful variations and often paint the same view at different times of the day and year.

Saint Theodora/Mother Theodore Guerin referred to herself and companion sisters as “Daughters of the Forest.” When they arrived in the untouched Indiana in 1840, they did indeed witness the wilderness in its full glory and learned to survive and thrive in the untamed land.

Saint Theodora wrote in her journals, “The beauty of the forest of Indiana in the rich and lovely month of May surpasses all descriptions. The rivers, swollen by the rains, flow through long lanes of verdure, caressing the islands they seem to carry with them in their course and which looked like floating nosegays.” She describes the white flowers of the magnolia, dog-wood, and catalpa as perfumed snow of springtime abundance. She marvels at the array of animals and sees God in the world around her.

Get out there and see what you find. The air and excercise will feed your body and soul.

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Saint Mother Theodore Guerin/Theodora was an advocate for respecting all life forms. Read about her journey in Seven Principles of Sainthood and Saint Theodora and Her Promise to God.

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(Photos above were taken in Starved Rock in Oglesby, IL, Geneva, IL, Bussee Woods in Elk Grove Village, IL, Upper MI, and Bloomingdale, IL.)