A Note from our Music Minister Mark Kuroski
Hello Central Christian Church! I’m looking forward to coming back to share worship together again after three weeks of being out. The choir has taken a break from singing for the month of July, and during that time I’ve been up in Wisconsin where I’m from to attend a large family gathering up in Northern Wisconsin which is a popular destination for a summer getaway with tons of lakes and forests to enjoy being in nature.
There were 16 of us in a number of different cabins around the same lake for a full week and it was a wonderful time to connect with family, as well as nature. I was reminded of the phrase “touch grass” — a gentle (and sometimes a little sassy) reminder to step away from the digital world of phones and laptops and return to the natural. While on this trip, I came to understand this phrase in a more personal level having the chance to “touch grass” every day and in the beauty of a cabin surrounded by a serene lake in Northern Wisconsin see the unmistakable presence of God in everything around me.
There’s something profoundly humbling about hearing the call of loons echoing across a still lake, or watching the early morning mist rise gently from the water. Each quiet moment sitting on the dock or walking among the trees pulled me further away from the stress of our daily modern life and closer to peace.
Psalm 19:1 says, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.” And during my time at the cabin, it was easy to see the truth in that psalm. It was something you could not only see, but also feel…the marvel of wildflowers growing where no one had planted them, the golden sunsets painting the sky without human help, and the gentle rhythm of lake waves that seemed to sing a song and follow a rhythm that gets easily overpowered by car engines and honking horns near a freeway or downtown.
I was reminded that before we had screens and schedules, we had a garden. God placed humanity in a natural setting not by accident, but by divine design. Creation is one of His greatest gifts — and often, one of the first we forget to unwrap and one we forget to protect. He is present — not just in sanctuaries and scripture, but in birdsong, breeze, and birch trees.
As I head back to Austin, I will need to find time to connect with nature there as well, and to take time to “touch grass”. I think it’s a little harder because of the heat and wanting to stay in the AC all day (as well as a few recent scares with rattlesnakes in my neighborhood), but there are many places of beauty and nature in the area that I haven’t explored that I look forward to discovering. Let’s never be too busy to notice the flowers, too distracted to hear the wind in the trees, or too plugged in to touch the grass. PS: Please follow this link
https://s.insta360.com/p/37dc98fac2056a3a76360692e09e44c9
if you’d like to view a 360 degree of the lake near my cabin (you can spin the photo around and feel a little bit like you are at the lake with me!)