Bushcraft, Backwoodsmanship and Wilderness Living skills provide us with a pathway to restore the connection we have lost with creation, to reignite the ember deep within us all that brings light in our ever-darkening lives and highlights the beauty of the natural world that we have too long ignored. Being in and learning about the natural world reinvigorates, regenerates, and restores the meaning of life, it shows a purpose and a reason and illuminates the web of life to which we all belong, we are the children of a Heavenly Father. As stewards of the created world, we are to realise the importance of each plant, animal, and person in existence and to rediscover the wonder of the force that binds us all together, our Heavenly Father.

It is important to take a theocentric (God centred) approach to nature and not an eco-centric (nature centred) nor anthropocentric (human centred) approach. We worship God alone. ‘Mother Nature’ is not an entity independent of creation. Nature, and the laws of it, were set in motion by God himself before the beginning of time. Just as a computer programmer can write code that can work independently of the programmer, yet it is still under the authority of its master, so too is nature at the whim of the God of creation. God set the laws of nature into motion, and He can use and control it for His own glory.

Psalm 8:3-9 states ‘When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honour. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas. O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!’

We value Gods creation, our natural world, as it is through witnessing the beauty and majesty of the world that we can learn more about who God is and His love for us. Through nature God speaks to us, teaches us, and provides for us. This is why we are called to protect nature, that and for our provision. We do not protect nature as nature itself is worthy of worship, it is not a god to be worshipped, nor is it for selfish reasons or to satisfy our own self importance, but creation points to God. We also cannot treat creation and the natural world as if we are the gods, destroying that which does not belong to us.

God is not limited to a church building; God is omnipresent and it was God that created the world. His hands formed nature, our hands are destroying it. Our job at creation was to steward, look after creation for God. Nature is not ours to destroy, it is ours to enjoy.