Spiritual summertime.  Did you know there is such a thing? One of our core New Church teachings is that everything in nature exists as they are because something higher…something spiritual…in the spiritual world corresponds to it. There is a deep relation and symbolic connection between what is natural and what is spiritual.

As the Rev. Dr. George Dole taught us in seminary on this, just remember this simple phrase: “As above, so below.” William Worcester describes this reality in his excellent little book, The Language of Parable, this way: “Every object of nature, every phenomenon, is as a smile on nature’s face, or a tear, or a tone of nature’s voice which embodies to us feelings and thoughts within. Everyone is an effect which invites us to trace it back to its cause in the world of the human mind and originally in the Lord Himself.” (p. 6)

The relation between natural objects surrounding us and the spiritual things within our minds rests on the truth that they are the same things on two distinct planes of life. So, for example, the deep feelings of spiritual joy I experience sometimes are outwardly expressed by a sweet smile on my face and that precious glint in my eyes.

Can you guess what natural summertime represents in the life and growth of your spirit?