We were never meant to be set apart from nature

​I took an 8-mile hike along the beautiful Creeper Trail yesterday. I took along nothing but water. I left behind the noise of the world and as much as possible, the noise that always lives within me.

I found immediate peace there. I was reminded that I've come to spend way too little time in the mountains and in the forests and in nature in general.

God reminded me yesterday that although He created me, my birth has its ultimate origins in nature. For the book of Genesis tells us:

God formed Man out of dirt from the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life. The Man came alive—a living soul!

God could have made us living souls come alive from anything. He chose to make us come alive from the very dirt I walk on when I hike the trails. The trails that bring me such peace.

Is it because as much as anything can, walking the dirt layered trails returns me to my roots? Is that why walking the sidewalks and the paved highways often feels healthy, but not always quite as peace-filled?

The creation story goes on to say, after God created us from nature, he planted us within nature. Nature living within nature:

Genesis tells us, God planted a garden in Eden, in the east. He put the Man he had just made in it. God made all kinds of trees grow from the ground, trees beautiful to look at and good to eat.

A simple tree, any tree, one among thousands, looks beautiful to me when I stop to look at it. When I stand there and stare at it and feel reminded that is the very purpose of the tree - to be beautiful to look at.

Why should it surprise me, then, to find such peace in the middle of a forest. A natural design created by the Maker to overwhelm us with beauty.

Since the days of the garden of Eden, man has been on quite the quest to create our own ideas of beauty.

Maybe that isn't a problem, at least not until we've abandoned beauty's original design. Or worse, when beauty's original design gets erased for man's designs of such.

When God blew life into the dirt and man came to life. And then God planted that life among the trees, how far away did God ever imagine man growing from that very place where he planted us?

Did God ever imagine we'd find greater joy among the tall buildings than among the tall trees?

Did God ever imagine the sounds of man would bring us greater joy than the sounds of a hustling stream?

Did God ever imagine we'd create something that would more readily take our breath away than the garden he created?

I don't know the answers to any of those questions. I won't pretend I do.

But I do know this. This is fact for me. When I am surrounded by trees and when my feet walk upon dirt, I feel closer to God than I ever feel anywhere else.

It occurred to me hiking yesterday that maybe that's because I am.

I was made from dirt. I was planted among the trees so beautiful to look at. Why should I feel anything but close to God, why should I feel anything other than a homecoming when I enter the woods?

I don't.

And yesterday was a reminder to return home more often.