A Glimpse of Paradise
In 2005, I had the delightful pleasure of visiting Lake Tekapo whilst travelling the South Island of New Zealand.
Situated on the edge of the lake, the ‘Church of the Good Shepherd’ is a little cutie that has to be seen to be believed.
It’s supposedly the hardest church to give a sermon in – mainly because the view behind the pulpit lulls the congregation into a dazed episode of private ecstasy.
But I figure the clergy shouldn’t worry about this too much because being seated in that church and looking out onto the lake as it is framed by the stone walls, is a spiritual experience in itself.
They still hold services here and the waiting list for wedding ceremonies is lengthy.
The lake itself is a large expanse of flat water with ever-present ripples in distinctly blue water. And it so clean you feel drawn to fall forward and be embraced by the clear flow – I mean… you can see all the way to the bottom at the shallow end!!!!
An entry in my travel journal reads:
Ah, the lake … the lake. What a supreme experience!
I watched someone jet-skiing in the middle of it and shared their exhilaration to have lived to see such a place: to have observed it with my own senses; to be able to say “I was there” and count that experience as one of my life’s achievements.
If you’re ever passing this way, do yourself a favour and stop awhile.
You can see how other bloggers responded to the challenge at The Daily Post.
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AUTHOR: I am might war. I have a love of music, the written word, travel, Anime, polar bears, people and “sticking and colouring”.
Very nice images!
Thank you, The Retiring Sort.
That should be a lovely Church to pray in. 🙂
It is a very lovely space indeed. It seems to hold a comfortable silence regardless of the number of people roaming about.
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Thanks, Dawn. I’ll be checking this out.
The first photo is quite striking; I really like the composition of the 3 rectangular windows and the inner sanctuary’s humble darkness, along with the simple, meager cross in the center. Its perfect the way the understated cross and interior of the church glorify, instead of attempt to compete with, that awesome, almost breath-taking, landscape – as if the intention was to exemplify their God’s artistry, beholding his work. I also like the way a clean, almost crisp, yet soft light illuminates the altar/table?? before the cross. That table seems to contribute in a silent way, too, giving undertones of an unadorned and lasting servitude…and finally, I like the way the distant shoreline horizontally divides the windows and I almost wish that sedge/bush wasn’t there, or that there was one on each side but that’s probably just me being a bit OCD!
Dear R. Olson,
Wow! Your comment had me viewing the image in a whole new light. I’ve always loved this photo and was overjoyed to get home and find that it had come out so well. But you drew out things that I hadn’t noticed before and had me staring at it for a while this morning. Love the line about “unadorned and lasting servitude”.
Finally I found your reply! I am so glad to have inspired you to revisit your photograph! I always love those times when you’ve stopped analyzing a creative piece for long enough to finally be able to SEE it again! And I’m glad you liked my description of how your photograph conveyed itself to me! Great job, I look forward to seeing more from you!