How can the God of peace be with you? Paul says that God will do the keeping of hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. This peace will be beyond understanding. Paul then lists what we should think about: honest, just, pure and lovely things, things that are of good report, if there is virtue, praise, these are the things to think about. (We can always choose how we think.)
Philippians 4:7,8 ( Sandy’s summary.)
Meditating on God’s word helps to keep the mind in relationship with God.
Your Word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee.
Psalm 119:11
Then Isaiah says: ‘ Those that wait for the Lord will renew their strength, they will mount up with wings of eagles; they will run and not get weary; they will walk and not faint. Isaiah 40:31
A personal relationship with God and a quiet time of listening and praying are important to help renew our minds.
The journey of renewal of our minds will have the reward of peace.
It is with interest that we looked at an important building in Frankenberg Germany. Firstly, Frankenberg is a town in the Frankenberg district of Hessen. The town was built between 1233 and 1234 by the Thuringian Landgrave at the junction of two trade routes. The present old and new town have many half – timbered houses. The town adopted an additional name in 2018 ‘ Philipp Soldan Stadt.’ Why?
The answer is found in the building we looked at. It is one of the most beautiful half- timbered town halls in Germany and a classic example of late Gothic architecture. It took the craftsman four years to complete the new building in the present form. Looking at the roof there are 10 towers symbolising the 10 medieval guilds that once operated in the city and then looking at some sculptures we find the answer as to why a new name was given to the city.
Philipp Soldan, a renowned sculptor of the 16th century has his work as part of this building.
The time spent here was unpleasantly hot. The shade and are sharp and I was in no mood to take photographs but here are two.
The famous piggy back figures ( Knaggen) carved by Philipp Soldan to this day remain local folk mysteries. There are other sculptures with some writing:
A figure of a fool playing the bagpipes: ‘ Ich pyff halt hart’ (Hold on I’m playing.)
A figure of an older man pulling a younger man’s ears: ‘ Halt, halt ich doing’ ( Hold, hold I am pulling.)
The towers, 10 of them but only 5 seen here.
The fame of the 16th century sculptor now lives on in the new name of the town but there was something else I was curious about. I have seen it in quite a few places. Look at the pebble mosaic of a six petal flower what significance does that have?
It is an ancient symbol most commonly known as Hexafoil/daisy wheel or a six-petal rosette.
It is first recorded as a solar/sun symbol in the Near East in the 8th century BC, it flanks a Syrian solar deity/sun god.
Its presence in front of historic European buildings typically holds a few layered meanings.
Warding off evil/bad luck/ witches. It was often carved into wooden beams or laid in stone thresholds and entryways to act as permanent safeguards for buildings.
Then there is sacred geometry and creation. Here the 6-fold pattern ( also related to the Flower of Life) is often associated with the fundemental building blocks of creation, harmony and perfection.
A six-petalled flower with far more significance than you would think.
We left a town where the shade of the trees became more important as midday came.
We are travelling.
Take care wherever you are in this heat.
Sandy 🙂
Ps
Some thoughts about heat from Isaac Newton and one from Neil deGrasse Tyson.
Atheism is so senseless. When I look at the solar system, I see the earth at the right distance from the sun to receive the proper amounts of heat and light. This did not happen by chance.
And then for Neil deGrasse Tyson:
If you slid Pluto to where Earth is right now, heat from the sun would evaporate that ice, and it would grow a tail. Now that’s no kind of behaviour for a planet.