How encounter with birch tree in sun touched the soul – Christian Viewpoint
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In Highland author Merryn Glover’s wonderful new book, The Hidden Fires, she describes her growing passion for the Cairngorm mountains. She follows in the footsteps of Nan Shepherd, recorded in her classic work The Living Mountain.
Merryn Glover, writer in residence at the Cairngorms National Park in 2019, writes sublimely. There’s discussion of land use and conservation in the park; there are many vividly perceived and powerfully expressed depictions of landscape and nature; there’s honest autobiographical writing describing Glover’s many Cairngorm pilgrimages.
At the very end of The Hidden Fires, Glover describes a birch tree glowing in the setting sun. This is a brilliant emblem for her book’s theme – that a glory reaches us through the loveliness of nature.
Glover (and Shepherd) perceive this glory through whole-bodied embrace of the mountains, deploying every sense, engaging with zest and spontaneity.
Seeking to understand her Cairngorm experiences, Nan Shepherd explored Eastern philosophies, whereas in her teens she seems to have had “a passionate and personal” Christian faith.
Merryn Glover suggests one reason Shepherd walked away from Christian observance was that her desire to respond to the natural world, body and soul, was frowned on by a Free Church which regarded the human body as “inferior” to the soul, and “potentially a threat to [its] progress.” This is tragic, when that glow of sunlight on an evening birch reminds us that there is a wonder to seek. Narnia lies behind the wardrobe, Glover reminds us, the Secret Garden beyond the door. Hidden fires.
She helpfully reminds us that some strands of Christianity affirm that the body is good, that Wonder is encountered in sensual embrace of natural reality.
“But what of the bodies that are aged, or tired, or sick or disabled,” Glover wonders. And what of those who, through mental ill-health, often feel numb and unable to connect with nature’s wild wonder?
Glover notes the loss of some faculties often results in a heightening of what remains. I am comforted that Wonder is still granted to the mind and heart through other channels – word and image and music, the touch of love.
Glover describes the flame-bright birch as a “burning bush”, which reminds me of the Bush in the Bible, burning with God’s presence. For me as a Christian, pure Wonder, whatever its context, is an expression of God. Sometimes, even I am touched by nature. Sometimes when I’m quietly weeding, warmed by sunlight, peace enters me, stills me. I sense the Presence. I remain motionless. “Thank you!”
