Good morning…
Breaking in new trail shoes for our upcoming group trips with Lovett Expeditions, Steve and I have been walking our dog Tate to and from the horse farm after dinner each night. Last night, I noticed the moon slowly inching her way toward full. Wispy clouds streaked the rich blue sky, and I marveled at God’s mammoth masterpiece.
“I don’t think it is enough appreciated how much an outdoor book this Bible is,” writes Wendell Berry. “It is a . . . book open to the sky. It is best read and understood outdoors, and the further outdoors the better . . . . Passages that within walls seem improbable or incredible, outdoors seem merely natural.”
“Indeed, Scriptures rely heavily on the outdoors,” chimes in Arthur Paul Boers, author of The Way is Made by Walking. “The psalms reflect extensively on images of the beauty and majesty of God’s creation and order. How many parables would be left if we excised all references to the natural world, sun or seed, wheat or weed? Think of the importance of gardens and deserts and seas and rivers in Scripture. Or how often Jesus deliberately went to mountain tops or wilderness or the water.”
“I discovered on the Camino that being alfresco inspires prayer and praise,” explains Boers. “However, it was not just being outside. In Acts 3 a lame man is healed and began ‘walking and leaping and praising God’ (v.8). My long journey convinces me that it is no coincidence that these verbs are parallel. Worship of God is closely bound up with the wonder of walking.” (p. 167-168)
I learned a new word as I read along. Alfresco. Being alfresco inspires prayer and praise. Alfresco means “taking place in the open air.” Out-of-doors. Outside. Airy.
Steve and a group of eight will walk up Mt. Kilimanjaro over these next two weeks, and next month, with a group of thirteen, both of us will walk ten days on the Camino, a pilgrimage leading to the shrine of St. James at the Cathedral of Santiago de Compestela in Spain. Bonding deeply, we will spend hours and hours, days and nights, being gloriously alfresco. Prayer, praise, and worship of God will be closely bound up with the wonder of walking in the wide open air.
This God is our God for ever and ever; he shall be our guide forevermore (Psalm 48:13, BCP).
…Sue…
