The view from Echo Point is the banner on this blogsite and considering I was at Echo Point on Friday, I thought I may as well blog about my banner.

I was on a school excursion to the beautiful Blue Mountains with International Students. It was an excursion that was planned for late 2019, but was then postponed due to bushfires… then a pandemic. Eighteen months later, we finally made it there.

The weather was perfect.

The mist coming up from the valley when we arrived a bit before 10am was spectacular. Then the day warmed up to just the right amount.

The students, a number of whom have been separated from their family – or some of their family – since January last year were on the excursion. The weather was amazing, but for me, the best part of the day was seeing students enjoying themselves.

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The Three Sisters, according to Aboriginal Dreamtime stories were Meehni, Wimlah and Gunnedoo, and they lived in the Jamison valley (where all the mist is…). They met three brothers from a nearby tribe who captured their hearts, yet tribal law forbid their marriages.

The brothers decided they would capture the girls so that they could marry them. This of course led to fierce fighting between the tribes. In an attempt to stop the fighting, a local witch doctor turned the girls to stone. However, the witch doctor was killed in a battle and never able to reverse the spell.

Well, that’s one version of the dreamtime story. Another version involves a bunyip.

Having been to the Blue Mountains many times during my childhood, I remember the brothers and the battle more so than the bunyip.

Not that I as a Christian believe that those rocks were made by a witch doctor.

I believe God put them there.

The wonders of the Blue Mountains – Heritage Listed, mind you – are wonders of the modern natural world. And ancient world. The beauty we see there today was started when God set the moon and stars in their place.

Different people have different ideas about God, if they believe he exists.

I believe in a God who loves the natural world (he made it, right?) and has a profound sense of all that is beautiful, good and ‘of wonder’.

I believe in a God who controls the natural world, including the weather.

I believe in a God who knows what people need all the time – and sometimes, that’s just to enjoy themselves a bit.

Thanks God for delivering – rocks in the past, blue skies in the present, and good memories to remember in the future.

He knows what we need and when we need it. Even if it’s just some blues skies, we can ask for it.

He always wants to give us good gifts.

Yours in enjoying some fresh mountain air,

Alison

Thanks to Blue Mountains Tours Sydney for helping me get the Dreamtime story correct.