new church life: november/december 2017
Consider also how colors affect people’s mood. Much study has gone into
choosing the best colors for the walls and furnishings in hospitals, schools,
restaurants and other facilities. Rich red is a favorite for restaurants because it
has been found to stimulate appetite. But a loud, irritating shade of yellow may
be chosen for fast food restaurants where it is hoped customers will eat quickly
and leave. Blues and purples, colors often associated with toxins, decrease
appetite and aren’t a good choice for dining establishments. Cool colors, soft
blues and greens, are calming, and thus good for hospital rooms.
Nature’s general color scheme – blue sky above, green grass and quiet
earth tones below – is very restful. This is no accident. Human beings didn’t
design nature, but it was designed for our benefit, and with infinitely more
wisdom than we could ever bring to the project. “He maketh me to lie down
in green pastures.”
The Lord influences our minds with beauty and peace from within, and
correspondingly, through nature, with beauty and peace from without.
(WEO)
finding peace in nature
“There is not one thing of beauty and delight in the sky above or on the earth
beneath that is not in some respect representative of the Lord’s kingdom.”
(Arcana Coelestia 1807)
But it isn’t just the things we see in the natural world that represent heaven,
it’s the order in which they exist. All things in nature obey the laws of nature,
just as, in heaven, the angels all obey the laws of heaven – that is, the Divine
laws of the Lord’s Word. They obey them because they love the Lord and wish
to follow Him, as sheep follow their shepherd. This is their defining quality:
innocence. And it is represented in nature, also, in that everything in nature,
even down to the atomic and subatomic level, obeys the laws of nature.
Heaven and the world are conjoined by correspondence and influx.
The flow of life from the Divine into heaven continues on down into our
world, bringing with it something of the sphere of innocence and peace that
encompasses heaven. We can sense this in nature, which thus serves, along
with the Word, and the direct influx of life from the Lord into our souls, to
instill innocence and peace in us.
(WEO)
spiritual evolution
There is no question about the complex forms of use humans create – light
bulbs, microscopes, cameras, etc. – they all begin in the mind before they take
on a material form. They evolve from the spiritual into the natural, and each
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