Originally written in 2011
There are places that are beautiful, and then there are places that make you stop and wonder how all of this came to be.
Alice Springs was one of those places for me.
I loved the red earth, the rugged ranges and the way patches of green somehow emerged from such a harsh-looking landscape. The colours seemed almost impossible together — deep red rock, pale trunks, green leaves and an enormous blue sky.
Yet there they were.
Standing among those ancient-looking rocks, I remember becoming very aware of something bigger than the scenery itself.
There is a Creator.
It wasn’t complicated theology. It was simply the feeling that came from looking around me and thinking that something this extraordinary could not be improved by human hands.
We can build beautiful cities, plant gardens and create works of art, but there is something different about a landscape that has simply been allowed to be what it is.
Red earth beside green growth.
Hard rock beside delicate plants.
A landscape that can look dry and unforgiving, yet still holds life.
For me, that contrast was creation at its best.
Perhaps that is one of the reasons Alice Springs stayed with me. I didn’t just see a beautiful part of Australia.
I felt small in it.
And strangely, very grateful to be standing there.
Stories Along the Way 