Over the last year or so, I have been reading around Forest Church, our connection with the world around us and our worship with God.
God created the world and us. We can learn a lot about God and be united with the whole of the world, humanity and creation together. Many of us have lost the direct connection we once had as our hunter gatherer ancestors, who spent more of their time working with rather than exploiting and wasting the worlds resources.
Why does this interest me?
Spiritually I have always felt close to God particularly when amongst nature. As a child, when I would visit and spend time with family on the farm there was a spot I always used to love to go to. In one of the far fields, near the beck was a fallenk rotting tree trunk. I loved sitting there, watching the cows, rabbits and birds – listening to all the sounds and trying to work out what they were. There was a time were I wanted to be a farmer like my grandad when I grew up!
And I occasionally got to help out!
I still feel closer to God surrounded by nature – normally when walking the dogs. Its my time for quiet space, at time to reflect and pray.
Lent prayer by Cagney and Lacey
Combining this with wanting to be as good a steward as I can to the world I live in, Wanting to be good stewards of our world
means learning more and spending more time getting to know the world around me.
For me this is a continuing journey of understanding my faith, the world in which I live and my interaction and worship of God within it all.
This was partly why we chose to marry outside in a circle of our friends. We could see amazing views and yet feel the closeness of our friends with the wind in our hair (well, mine, anyway!). It felt so special being outside and the guests all stayed out for ages after the ceremony.
There is a special place I go in the Peak District where I have shared my secrets with the woodland. If you see God as being in everything around you, then nature is just as much a part of your faith as anywhere else. I don’t have a problem in talking about ‘Mother Nature’ as an equivalent to ‘Father God’.