As humans we started off as nomads. When we leave our cities to go camping in the Australian bush, we have a real sense of getting back to our roots.
By camping, I don’t mean staying in a caravan park with all the facilities of home available to us. To ’get away from it all’, as the saying goes, is to travel to a setting where you can experience the rhythmic sounds of nature untarnished by the electronic or mechanical noises of the city.
Here in Australia it is so easy for us to find these locations where we can enjoy the natural sounds and sights of birds and animals; the wind in the trees; the movement of water in a river or waves in the sea.
It is in this environment we can experience feelings of peacefulness, mental wellbeing and the freedom and enjoyment of spending quality time with ourselves or our family and friends. Here it seems so much easier to be in touch with our God.
If you are an early riser you get to see the miracle of a new day dawning through the mists in a valley and hear the wake-up calls of birds passing around the early treetop news. If you are quiet, you might also see a mother kangaroo feeding the youngster in her pouch, or the platypus family sneaking out of their underwater home to welcome the day.
Having the time to sit in front of a camp fire, watching the sun slowly set on a perfect day while dinner cooks in the camp oven and the kids cook their marshmellows on pointy sticks in the glowing embers, is priceless.
Later as it gets dark, you get to view the wonder of a star filled sky that helps us realise we are just a small part of an amazing universe created for us to enjoy and look after by a God who truly loves us.
I’m Peter Mack and that’s faith.