What You Don’t Know.....

What you don’t know can get you killed when you are out in nature!  Too often a curious person has ventured into an area in which they have no training or experience and found themselves in grave danger.  Our society has tamed many things and brought them into our homes like electricity and fire.  But electricity can kill you and fires can trap you and burn everything you own to ashes.  Sadly, so many of us have been raised on a diet of Disney-like animal characters which talk and think and love and are made to resemble human beings in their lives, that we think of the wilderness as a kind and delightful place where we could go and live in peace forever.

Unfortunately, the truth is much harsher. Case in point: Even though bears look cuddly and cute they cannot be trusted as Timothy  Treadwell (1959-2003) found out.  After living with bears for thirteen summers at Katmai park in Alaska, he and his girlfriend were killed in 2003 by a 28 year old brown bear whose stomach was later opened and found to contain clothing and human remains.  There was a movie made in 2005 about him called “Grizzly Man”.  Even this man who loved bears and lived with them was eventually killed by one. I remember learning as a little child this truth, “Never trust a bear!” That statement is obviously and tragically true as Timothy and his girlfriend found out.

Mother Nature is not an person as some have supposed and some pagan religions have worshiped.  Interestingly, this idea of Mother Nature is not completely antithetical to the Biblical teaching of Creationism.  As God knelt in the dirt and formed the first man from the dust, you might say that as God is our Father so the earth is our mother for we came out of her, out of her dust, her womb if you will.

And so we say, Mother Nature doesn’t love you, she doesn’t care about you and she isn’t trying to kill you when you are in the outdoors. Actually, she isn’t even aware of you, because she isn’t real!  The truth is, all of Creation has been affected by Man’s sin and is a polluted and ruined place.  Nature is impersonal and uncaring about whether or not you live or die.  Not all the animals are friendly and some of them would like to eat you. Lightning can strike you, floods can drown you and the ice will freeze you.

The only way you can learn to survive and even thrive in the outdoors or wilderness area is to learn how to move in sequence, in rhythm, in harmony with Nature.  And, when the need arises, to move in opposition to her.  Get to know her moods, learn to read her skies and winds, her trees and shrubs, her grasses and herbs, her waters and floods, her animals and insects.  Know her when she is calm and when she is stormy, during Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter.  Learn how to wring water from her when you are thirsty and how to wrest food from her when you are hungry.  Learn how to keep warm when it is cold and how to stay cool when it is hot.  Learn how to build shelter from limbs and trees and rocks and dirt. Learn to read the Sun, Moon and Stars for your seasons and directions.  Know that sometimes you will be cold, hungry, wet and uncomfortable and that sometimes you will feel like it is the perfect day.  And all the while, realize that she doesn’t care.  She’s not a person, it’s just you and the elements.  So get to know what you need to know should the need arise. Get the requisite training and begin to play out scenarios in your mind and seek out the solutions.

Spiritually speaking, we may be alone in the wilderness as far as Mother Nature is concerned, but the reality is that for the believer, God, our Heavenly Father is very real and a very present help in the time of trouble.  Many a lost and wandering soul has found peace and solace in a very real storm by merely seeking His Presence in prayer.  It’s probably one of the reasons that many of us love the outdoors so much.  When we are among God’s Creation, polluted though it may be, we find a connection to Him that we find in no other place.  Maybe it’s because Man and Woman’s first environment was that of a garden among the flowers, trees, fruit and herbs irrigated by a subterranean water system that flourished every day for their delight.  Maybe when we walk with God in the cool of the day under the green canopy of trees with the late afternoon sunlight streaming through the leaves and branches, we feel once more that we are where we were created to be!  So when life is stressing you and the concrete jungle around you is oppressing your spirit, get out and take a walk and enjoy nature and have a talk with the One who made you to enjoy such a time with Him.

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James B