Devotion for March 9, 2016
11/03/16 18:16
Greetings!!
My sister in law sent me tickets to go to the Biltmore. Now, for those of you who may not be familiar with the Biltmore, it is a home the Vanderbilts built in the late 1880s. It is quite an impressive place. It is still today the largest privately owned house in the United States and has some really neat features - like the basement with the indoor swimming pool and bowling alley. The house sits on top of a high hill and has a beautiful view looking out over the surrounding hills and stands like a great impressive monolith.
When you first ride up to the house in the shuttle bus that brings you from the parking lot, the impact is amazing. It is like this great, huge, beautiful structure just appears before you. Even my 2 year old granddaughter let out with a loud “Whoa!” when the house came into view. Seeing that face with those big eyes and that awestruck expression on her face was truly priceless.
Even as an adult it is a view that is really beyond description and never lessens no matter how many times you see it. You exit the shuttle bus right in front of the main door though which you enter the main entryway which includes the mandatory search through your belongings before you can really enter the house.
One of the first spectacles you encounter is the ‘winter’ garden - a center room under high skylights filled with plants - beautiful plants - flowering plants and ferns and dwarf trees. My first thought was that I wanted one of these in my house! I love plants and have plenty of plants around the house already, but this would just be the perfect place to put a comfy chair and spend an afternoon reading surrounded by this splash of nature!
What a juxtaposition as you wander into the next room and instead of being surrounded by this wonder of live plants, you are surrounded by the wonder of mounted animal heads. Elk and Moose and Big Horn Sheep heads which decorate all the walls. Now, this really isn’t a comment for or against big game hunting or with displaying the animals you hunt on the walls, but it was such a big difference between walking from this brightly lit area fill with living plants into this very dark ‘game’ room which is filled with quite the opposite - dead, stuffed animals. But still there was a beauty to these impressive animals.
The tour continues on and on and on through this large home - 4 acres of home and you just can’t imagine what it must be like to actually live in such a cavernous, monstrous building. The guides that are standing randomly around the home told us there were some of these rooms the owners of the home never were in! Of course with a house this size it must be a challenge to even walk from one end of the house to the other much less spend time in each of the rooms. I kept looking for that comfy room where one could just sit and chill and watch some TV and that room didn’t appear to exist in this massive home - what enjoyment could there be if there really wasn’t any place to just have an enjoyable, informal experience!
After you spend all this time in this largest of all houses, you are then directed out to the gardens. Now here is really the beauty of this estate. Down some steps you go and into the garden area. Here you really see the beauty of the estate. Blooming bulbs and roses and vines and flowering trees and bushes. What a serene display of God’s creative wonder.
From this time on, the rest of the day consisted of walking through the natural beauty of the world - not only the gardens but as you drive from the parking lot, it is a nice, slow, meandering drive through a bamboo forest, and beautiful green fields and a winding creek dotted by more blooming red buds and other spring bushes. Such a relaxing, enjoyable, peaceful time driving through this pure, natural area.
What a contrast to the time spent in the house where everything was ornate, and always crowded with furniture and other interesting items; where there were crowds of people which often made walking from one room to the next a challenge. While the house was a nifty thing to see - there was never a sense of quiet or peace or restfulness; too much stuff, too many people; Even on the terrace where you could look out over the surrounding hills, there were always people walking about and talking and such that while you might admire the beauty, you couldn’t really feel the awe of God’s world because there was so much else going on.
This was just another way to remind us of the difference between what we - people - create and what God has created for us. While what we as humans may make might be impressive and even beautiful, there just is never that same sense of grandeur and peace that God’s world brings us. While we as humans may fill our lives and our areas with nifty and expensive things, there will never be that sense of joy that comes from being in the natural sphere of God’s creation.
At some point, we just have to admit that God is God and we are not. Nothing we do will ever match the creative miracles that God places all round us!
Amen!!
Joanne!
My sister in law sent me tickets to go to the Biltmore. Now, for those of you who may not be familiar with the Biltmore, it is a home the Vanderbilts built in the late 1880s. It is quite an impressive place. It is still today the largest privately owned house in the United States and has some really neat features - like the basement with the indoor swimming pool and bowling alley. The house sits on top of a high hill and has a beautiful view looking out over the surrounding hills and stands like a great impressive monolith.
When you first ride up to the house in the shuttle bus that brings you from the parking lot, the impact is amazing. It is like this great, huge, beautiful structure just appears before you. Even my 2 year old granddaughter let out with a loud “Whoa!” when the house came into view. Seeing that face with those big eyes and that awestruck expression on her face was truly priceless.
Even as an adult it is a view that is really beyond description and never lessens no matter how many times you see it. You exit the shuttle bus right in front of the main door though which you enter the main entryway which includes the mandatory search through your belongings before you can really enter the house.
One of the first spectacles you encounter is the ‘winter’ garden - a center room under high skylights filled with plants - beautiful plants - flowering plants and ferns and dwarf trees. My first thought was that I wanted one of these in my house! I love plants and have plenty of plants around the house already, but this would just be the perfect place to put a comfy chair and spend an afternoon reading surrounded by this splash of nature!
What a juxtaposition as you wander into the next room and instead of being surrounded by this wonder of live plants, you are surrounded by the wonder of mounted animal heads. Elk and Moose and Big Horn Sheep heads which decorate all the walls. Now, this really isn’t a comment for or against big game hunting or with displaying the animals you hunt on the walls, but it was such a big difference between walking from this brightly lit area fill with living plants into this very dark ‘game’ room which is filled with quite the opposite - dead, stuffed animals. But still there was a beauty to these impressive animals.
The tour continues on and on and on through this large home - 4 acres of home and you just can’t imagine what it must be like to actually live in such a cavernous, monstrous building. The guides that are standing randomly around the home told us there were some of these rooms the owners of the home never were in! Of course with a house this size it must be a challenge to even walk from one end of the house to the other much less spend time in each of the rooms. I kept looking for that comfy room where one could just sit and chill and watch some TV and that room didn’t appear to exist in this massive home - what enjoyment could there be if there really wasn’t any place to just have an enjoyable, informal experience!
After you spend all this time in this largest of all houses, you are then directed out to the gardens. Now here is really the beauty of this estate. Down some steps you go and into the garden area. Here you really see the beauty of the estate. Blooming bulbs and roses and vines and flowering trees and bushes. What a serene display of God’s creative wonder.
From this time on, the rest of the day consisted of walking through the natural beauty of the world - not only the gardens but as you drive from the parking lot, it is a nice, slow, meandering drive through a bamboo forest, and beautiful green fields and a winding creek dotted by more blooming red buds and other spring bushes. Such a relaxing, enjoyable, peaceful time driving through this pure, natural area.
What a contrast to the time spent in the house where everything was ornate, and always crowded with furniture and other interesting items; where there were crowds of people which often made walking from one room to the next a challenge. While the house was a nifty thing to see - there was never a sense of quiet or peace or restfulness; too much stuff, too many people; Even on the terrace where you could look out over the surrounding hills, there were always people walking about and talking and such that while you might admire the beauty, you couldn’t really feel the awe of God’s world because there was so much else going on.
This was just another way to remind us of the difference between what we - people - create and what God has created for us. While what we as humans may make might be impressive and even beautiful, there just is never that same sense of grandeur and peace that God’s world brings us. While we as humans may fill our lives and our areas with nifty and expensive things, there will never be that sense of joy that comes from being in the natural sphere of God’s creation.
At some point, we just have to admit that God is God and we are not. Nothing we do will ever match the creative miracles that God places all round us!
Amen!!
Joanne!