I love walking. One of my favorite pictures of the Christian faith is walking together with one another and with Jesus. Often unrecognized, as on the road to Emmaus, Jesus joins us along our way home, listening to our stories, asking good questions, sharing life with us, helping us dig deeper into God’s Word, and renewing us in our journey together. One of the good questions our Lord asks is, “How goes your walk?” Over a century ago, the early founders of the Evangelical Covenant Church asked each other, “How goes your walk with Christ?” As a Covenant pastor, I love this question. My brothers and sisters within the Covenant Church ask me this same question today whenever we meet together for mutual support, because they are interested in how goes my journey of faith with Christ. This article explores walking together in Scripture, walking with children in nature, hiking in national parks, and a few ways to walk together as a local church.

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01.  Walking Together in Scripture

According to Scripture, one of the ways we learn to love God is by walking together. As we hear the first great command in Scripture, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road” (Deuteronomy 6:5–7, NIV). Every year since 1986, I’ve gotten away to Benedictine monasteries for prayer and study. I love the cloister walks within the abbey surrounding cloister gardens. These are designed to help monks memorize and pray God’s Word. Walking in fresh air around a cloister garden keeps the mind awake to attend to the work of lectio divina, or prayerful reading of Scripture.

As parents within the family cloister, we are encouraged to impress God’s Word upon our kids as we walk together.The phrase “the family cloister” comes from my first book, The Family Cloister: Benedictine Wisdom for the Home (New York: Crossroad, 2000). Daily, God gives us teachable moments to instruct our children in God’s Word, including while walking together. One of my favorite family spirituality blogs, Good Dirt Families, written by Lacy Finn Borgo among others, “is a resource for families who are looking to disciple their kids intentionally into life with God.”Good Dirt Families is found here: https://gooddirtfamilies.com/ (accessed 19 February 2023). Good Dirt Families helps families learn to walk together in the way of loving God and loving others. Jesus revealed this way of life in his resurrection journey with two grieving people along the road home to Emmaus, opening their hearts to God’s Word. Later, these two would recall the encounter, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” (Luke 24:32, NIV).

God’s Word becomes flesh and dwells among us to open the Scriptures to us, showing us how God walks and empowering us to follow in his footsteps.See John 1:14 and 1 Peter 2:21. As Micah declares, “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8, NIV). Jesus opens our eyes to learn how to walk in our darkened world, declaring, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12, NIV). John walked closely with Jesus for years across many miles of landscape. There is no surprise when John picks up the theme of walking together in his letters: “If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another.” “And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. . . . his command is that you walk in love” (1 John 1:7; 2 John 1:6, NIV). Paul also walked many miles with others in his ministry, and instructs us to follow God by walking. “Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us” (Ephesians 5:1–2, NIV). For adults who love their couches more than their walking shoes, dearly loved children may be our best instructors in this way of following Christ by walking with others.

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02.  Walking with Children in Nature

Scottish naturalist John Muir wrote, “In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.”John Muir, Steep Trails (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1918), 128. Walking in nature has been one of our favorite family activities. As for me and my house, we began walking in nature with our children when they were babies, carrying them in a front pack or pushing them in a stroller. I recall an amazing walk on a stormy winter morning at high tide with our eldest when he was still in elementary school. We live a few blocks from the Pacific Ocean in a village on the north Oregon coast. That morning, my son and I climbed over wet boulders at Silver Point and then began the mile walk down Arcata Beach with not another person in sight. The wet sand was littered with junk washed ashore by the storm the previous night. Powerful winter storms hammer our coast, bringing to land flotsam and jetsam, some of which travels thousands of miles across the ocean from Asia. On that morning in late January, we went looking for beachcombing treasures. We were not disappointed. We found a pair of Japanese floating glass balls that morning, well-worn from years spent in the Pacific, resting on the wet sand like green jewels. Not only were the hearts of father and child united that day with our discovery, but our lives were mysteriously connected with a people living five thousand miles across the ocean.

Even before our three sons learned to walk, we took them to the beach, into the forest, through fields and meadows, along lakesides, up mountain trails, anywhere out into God’s creation to walk together. There is no surprise today that each of our grown sons love being out in nature. One is a marine scientist, doing field research in the natural habitat of the intertidal zone at the edge of the land and sea. Another son loves painting landscapes, including a large painting of the Oregon coast at sunset hanging on our living room wall. Our third son has a passion for capturing God’s glory in creation through nature photography.For Thomas Robinson’s spectacular online nature photo gallery at https://www.zoomdak.com/  (accessed 19 February 2023). Walking with our children in nature has nurtured their spiritual lives and strengthened our family life together. As Richard Louv writes in his seminal book Last Child in the Woods, “At the very moment that the bond is breaking between the young and the natural world, a growing body of research links our mental, physical, and spiritual health directly to our association with nature—in positive ways. . . . As one scientist puts it, we can now assume that just as children need good nutrition and adequate sleep, they may very well need contact with nature.”Richard Louv, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder (New York: Algonquin Books, 2008), 3.

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03.  Family Hiking in National Parks

Everybody needs beauty as well as bread,” John Muir wrote, “places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.” As a father of three grown sons, my favorite memories with our family involve walking together in national parks, our “places to play in and pray in.” During the past fifteen years, our family has enjoyed annual backpacking vacations, walking fifty or more miles in a week in the backcountry of one of our national parks. We’ve hiked on half of the seven hundred miles of trails in Olympic National Park, Washington, along milky-blue glacial lakes surrounded by Avalanche Lilies, past playful mountain goat families. We’ve hiked onto the Continental Divide to the top of Mount Alice in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado, breathlessly standing at 13,310 feet elevation to look out upon the mountainous spine of our nation. We’ve circumnavigated the rugged but stunningly beautiful Northern Circle in Glacier National Park, Montana, and watched pikas play near the headwaters of the Merced River deep in the backcountry of Yosemite National Park, California. Our lives have been filled with the extravagant beauty of God’s creation, in clusters of blue columbine wildflowers, in the dawn call of the loon across a misty lake, or in the lavender glory of sunset upon an alpine lake perfectly reflecting the high Sierras. “Keep close to Nature’s heart,” Muir invites us, “and break clear away, once in a while, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean.”Samuel Hall Young, Alaska Days with John Muir (Portland, OR: WestWinds Press, 2013), 182.

Family backpacking vacations have offered us a wide horizon of possibilities for family spiritual growth, washing our spirit clean in Christ through his handiwork in creation. While out on a family hike, we have uninterrupted time together to sing, pray, read books aloud, talk, play, and reflect in silence together. We love sitting as a family under big trees after breakfast, enjoying family devotions to quietly reflect on such passages as Psalm 1.

 

His delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night.

He is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season and
whose leaf does not wither.

Whatever he does prospers (Psalm 1:2–3, NIV 1984).

 

Along with topographical maps, I always carry a laminated chapter of the Bible in my pocket, taking it out to memorize Scripture while hiking. A few years ago, while hiking for a week in Olympic National Park, I took time each day to memorize and meditate on Romans 8. Walking with God’s Word in nature, I have discovered deeper reflections upon creation’s decay and glory than would ever have been possible sitting in my study chair at home:

 

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God (Romans 8:18–21, NIV).

 

While hiking, we come upon signs of decay and signs of new glorious growth emerging from the decay, such as a fallen hemlock tree whose trunk became a nursery log, providing stability and food for hundreds of new hemlock seedlings. All creation, including our own bodies, participates in the limitations of mortality, waiting the day when we will all be “brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.” With aching muscles, mile after mile along the trail, I’ve found myself entering deeper into God’s great promises, my soul welling up with hope, as I discovered with our children signs of death and decay along with signs of new life in God’s great tapestry of creation. Long after we return home, the memories we’ve gathered while hiking together cast their radiance ahead of us, uniting our hearts in wonder and delight. As we take our children into nature to walk with God under the vast and shimmering canopy of stars, or into the cathedral of old forests, together we’ve discovered a deepening sense of wonder in the Creator of the cosmos. As John Muir discovered over and over again in his adventurous life, so our family has always received more than we’ve looked for while walking together in nature.

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04.  Walking Together as a Church Family

In a society that drives more than walks, the decision to walk together may seem odd at first. But the church has always offered countercultural approaches to daily living. Here are five ways to learn to walk together with your church family. First, walk together to worship. In the ancient world, Jewish people walked to worship, journeying for days on foot to the temple from across the countryside, celebrating this walking journey in such great pilgrim songs as Psalm 84.

 

Blessed are those whose strength is in you,
whose hearts are set on pilgrimage. . . .

They go from strength to strength,
till each appears before God in Zion (Psalm 84:5, 7, NIV).

 

For those who live close to the church building, commit to walk to worship. For those who live further distances, consider parking your car at a friend’s home near the church building and walking together the rest of the way together. As Constance Cherry writes in The Worship Architect, “Worship is a journey—a journey into God’s presence. . . . Each movement leads intelligently to the next so that, in the end, it is the journey that is experienced.”Constance M. Cherry, The Worship Architect: A Blueprint for Designing Culturally Relevant and Biblically Faithful Services (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2010), 47.

Second, try “prayer–walking” with a few others in your church community. In our local church, we’ve celebrated Days of Prayer that have included time for prayer–walking in pairs around neighborhoods, praying Christ’s blessings for people, homes, families, and businesses. We’ve enjoyed an informal conversational approach on these prayer walks, including conversing with your prayer-walking partner as well with God. Stop to visit with neighbors who are out in their yard. Ask them if they have any life concerns and offer to pray with them.

Third, walk the scriptural “stations of the cross” together during Holy Week. Traditionally, there are fourteen stations of the cross depicting our Lord’s journey to the cross. Find a simple guide to these stations to use together.See Megan McKenna, The New Stations of the Cross: The Way of the Cross According to Scripture (New York: Image Books, 2003); and Amy Welborn and Michael Dubruiel, John Paul II’s Biblical Way of the Cross (Notre Dame, IN: Ave Maria Press, 2009). Mount Angel Abbey, where I go on retreat, features interior stations of the cross as wood sculptures within the sanctuary, as well as exterior stations of the cross on a winding a pathway next to the driveway coming into the abbey grounds. Invite others within your congregation to join you during Holy Week to pray in the sanctuary, stopping at “stations of the cross,” meditating together upon Bible passages reflecting upon the passion of Christ.

Fourth, go on walking pilgrimage with your family or members of your church family. Plan your family travel experiences to visit sacred sites, including places of worship, and sites related to church history. For the more adventurous, commit to walking one of the great pilgrim ways, such as the Camino de Santiago, also known as the Way of St. James, a five-hundred-mile walking pilgrimage across northern Spain ending in the city of Santiago, Spain. In recent years, over two-hundred-thousand pilgrims per year have made this pilgrimage, usually in four to five weeks of walking. Or consider walking the Jesus Trail, a forty-mile pilgrim path across Galilee from Nazareth to Capernaum, Israel, following in the footsteps of our Lord. Another famous pilgrim way in Europe, the Via Francigena, follows St Francis, from France, across Italy to Rome. In Summer 2015, my wife and I plan to walk fifty miles of this pilgrim way into Francis’s hometown of Assisi, Italy.

Finally, enjoy a night walk in nature with the family of faith. Luther expressed it well when he declared, “God writes the Gospel not in the Bible alone, but also on trees, and in the flowers and clouds and stars.”Attributed to Luther; exact source from his writings unknown. Church families who spend quality time together on such nature outings expand their hearts and deepen their sense of wonder and delight at the goodness of God’s creation. On such a night walk, bring a headlamp and if possible a smart phone with an app connecting your location to the constellations in your night sky view.For iPhone or iPad users try “Sky View” a free app to identify constellations, stars, planets, and satellites, used by pointing your device at the night sky. For android phones, try either “Night Sky Lite” or “Sky Map.” Find and name the stars as though they are elderly, wise friends looking from on high. As the psalmist reminds us, “He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name” (Psalm 147:4, NIV).  As you study the stars together, read aloud Bible chapters on God’s creation such as Psalm 104 or the song of creation in Job 38–41.

 

Can you bind the beautiful Pleiades?

Can you loose the cords of Orion?

Can you bring forth the constellations
in their seasons

or lead the Bear with its cubs? (Job 38:31–32, NIV 1984).

 

“We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature—trees, flowers, grass—grows in silence; see the stars, the moon, and the sun, how they move in silence. . . . We need silence to be able to touch souls.”Quoted from Seeds of the Spirit: Wisdom of the Twentieth Century, Richard H. Bell and Barbara L. Battin, ed. (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1995), 104. So wrote one who touched the souls of millions, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, one of God’s bright stars shining in the darkness of the night of human suffering. Out under the night sky, walking among stars, our souls find their place in the universe once again, tiny yet brilliant points of light shining “like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life” (Philippians 2:15–16 NIV).

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05.  Family Nature Walk

Try a family activity of going out each week for a family nature walk with God. Head out to a wild place in a park with uncultivated fields or forests.

Step One: Plan a family nature walk. Check out hiking trails in your area, those within a short drive. Go online or to your local library to check out resources about kid-friendly day hikes in your area. The Mountaineers publish a series of “Best Hikes with Kids” for many areas across the country. Set a time during the day to meet together for this family activity.

Step Two: Prepare for the nature walk. Pack a daypack with necessary items for the nature walk, including water bottles, snacks, collection bags, journals, and basic survival essentials such as a first aid kit, flashlight with extra batteries, matches, maps, and compass. Decide on appropriate footwear and clothing, including raingear. Bring along a digital camera if possible. Over the years, we’ve gradually added to our family camping equipment, beginning with equipment for day hikes, transitioning into car camping, and then finally taking up wilderness backpacking.

Step Three: Take a walk together. While on the walk, ask family members to observe God’s creation to gather information about nature. One family member may want to specialize in rocks (geology); another in flowers and leaves (botany); another in animal life (zoology); another in weather patterns (meteorology). Help children pay close attention to different patterns in nature, including water droplets on flower petals, the shapes of blades of grass, or the colors of tree leaves. Write down observations in a journal. Collect samples as appropriate. Take photos of various aspects of nature for closer study later at home. As Richard Louv writes in The Nature Principle, “Our sensitivity to nature, and our humility within it, are essential to our physical and spiritual survival.”

Step Four: Share the walk. After returning from the nature walk, sit together as a family and show and tell what you’ve learned and discovered. Show photos taken during the walk. Gather some of these treasures on a plate and put a candle in the middle as a centerpiece for the dinner table. We have stones, feathers, seashells, and other objects of nature on nearly every window sill in our home from hundreds of nature walks taken together as a family over the years. They offer our family reminders to the many beautiful memories we’ve shared together in God’s wildlife sanctuary of nature.