Women's Ministry Blog - July 2026

A few years ago, I had a friend invite me to go on a Forest Walk. We went to a location just outside of Woodland Park for the walk. Imagine the excitement of getting out of her car in a stunningly gorgeous setting. The pines were all sizes and smelled of morning dew. The aspen trees, in their stunning beauty, and the mountain flora adorned the landscape with yellows, blues, whites, and a few faded reds. I drew a deep breath of refreshment and the coolness of the mountain air. There is nothing like it when it fills your lungs.

We took a short walk over a graveled path to a beautiful field. The sun warmed us throughout the walk; there were quiet moments and conversation. Time passed in soft tones and quiet. Silence was broken by the song of nearby birds, the breeze wafting through the treetops, the flight of small insects … then the quiet.

There were instructions and a tool given to us by our leader, along with an assignment to find something to observe. We went out into the immediate area to discover what God would have each person notice. The warmth of the sun was comforting like a blanket, and the shade of the tall trees was refreshing as I slowly looked for my items of discovery. Tall wild grass slipped by my toes as I picked up a couple of things.

I walked back to "my spot" and got comfortable. Holding the twig I had picked up, I took the tool I was given—a jeweler's loupe—and looked through it closely. It was as if I was looking carefully at the fingerprint of the tree the twig had fallen from. I was truly seeing it. The detail of the swirls, cuts, and definition was indescribable. What an experience!

The next item was a small yellow flower. As I peered through the loupe at the style, stigma, filament, and anther of the flower … silence, waiting. My breath was taken from me. My eyes were stilled. It was as though God opened heaven for a little peek into His creation. Unnoticed or unseen with the naked eye, I could see each tiny "hair" that supported the pods of pollen held by the flower. There was no sound in that instant as my mind disappeared into seeing what God had made. The sheer beauty He created was in my fingertips. Silence and seeing held my attention.

Then my eyes moved to a different focal point … and I noticed it. My finger was holding the flower, and I could see it so very clearly. The silence in my mind was broken with a myriad of thoughts … My cuticle. My finger is … so dry! The skin that had not yet sloughed off sat there, unnoticeable to the naked eye, but through the loupe—oh my heavens! The difference was unbelievable.

Silence fell within me.

The imperfection, as my thoughts unfolded with disbelief at what my hands looked like with the naked eye versus through the loupe. What was God showing me?

I find my answer here:

"For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God's gift—not from works, so that no one can boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do." Ephesians 2:8–10 (CSB)

We have grace as believers given to us—a gift from God, the Creator. This gift causes most of us to experience "silence" in our soul, in our heart, and in our mind as we try to understand it. The One who spins the globe, who provides air for our lungs, who made all the flowers we see, who made e v e r y t h i n g—sees me, like through this loupe.

Though we do not create as He does, He made us in His image. Yet we have imperfections the LORD allows, which are washed away through Christ as we confess our imperfection, our sin. As the dry skin of my body is sloughed off or washed away, God makes me new as I confess and repent. He sees all my imperfections. (I probably only recognize and confess the giant, obvious ones, right?!)

Then there is the silence of heaven, like in Revelation 8:1 (CSB): "When he (Jesus) opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour." Or Habakkuk 2:20: "But the LORD is in his holy temple; let the whole earth be silent in his presence."

This makes my heart praise in adoration, fall in humility, seek His grace, and receive His love. Does it yours?

Have you been seeing the LORD? Accepting His grace? Being His daughter? Confessing and being washed anew by Christ? Have you been silenced before His presence?

He is waiting for you—for the silence of your heart to be given on a busy day, again and again, in the moment, or perhaps for the first time in full. I am giving myself as often as I can to His beckoning, to being in His silence, to seeing what I need to confess, and to being renewed. Will you?

- Traci Hollingsworth