Nature on Show!

The Aurora Australis dances across the night sky at the Torquay surf beach in Victoria, Australia. Photo by Graham Holtshausen.

Have you ever had the experience of being distracted from the ordinariness of your day-to-day activity by something in ‘Nature,’ that reaches out to you? That beckons for your attention? That seems to be saying loudly and clearly, stop! Give me a moment of your attention.

Lately it seems to be happening more and more often for me, whether it is our local Kookaburra who often stops by to spend time with us in our yard, or the latest full moon edging over the horizon, stunning by its size and brightness, or the beautiful pastel colours of the setting sun which at this time of the year here in Sydney, often turn a very ordinary horizon, full of grey clouds momentarily into something radiantly beautiful.

Well, if you are familiar with these experiences, then I am sure you also noticed last week, the amazing array of images from all around the world that captured people’s experience of the spectacular ‘Northern’ and ‘Southern’ lights.  It was as if the whole world stopped for a day or so to share their experiences, both online via social media, and over a coffee at work or at home. Truly it was nature on show!

Perhaps it should not be surprising that so many people around the world shared this experience, for as Brian Grogan SJ states in his book, Finding God in a Leaf “everything in nature is a love note from God!” God is trying to get our attention!!

In his Chapter on ‘The Caress of God,’ Brian Grogan SJ goes on to say:

‘The real God is not impersonal but rather the great Lover, who chooses to create in order to convey boundless affection for us. Sky, light, clouds, living things, the delicacy of the flower, the play of the wind on your cheek, these are the caresses of God.  God is very close indeed: the big secret is that we walk the world of the divine all the time. Never to be awe-struck is to miss out on the richness of life.’

So how might we experience this affectionate reaching out of God?

For the everyday pilgrim, it comes in those moments when our attention is momentarily drawn out of ourselves to the ‘other,’ to the divine, who in our ‘looking’ and ‘feeling’, gently reminds us, that we are not alone. That I am part of something bigger, that I am connected in ways beyond my understanding to all things. That I and all of creation are 'from Love, of Love, and for Love.'*

When is a time I have experienced 'Nature on Show'?

How do I experience the invitation to stop and notice 'creation' around me?

So, as I walk forward today…

I take time to notice the variety of ways in which God might be reaching out to me through my experience of nature.

Please feel free to share your experience in the comments below!

If you are interested in exploring this theme further, we invite you to click through to 'Our Programmes' for a variety of opportunities.

*From the First Principle and Foundation of St Ignatius, paraphrased by Jacqueline Bergan & Marie Schwan CSJ