Striding out across the Highlands, mountains in the distance. You can’t help but notice how your feet are bouncing as you go. Cool water droplets spray your ankles and calves as you walk.
Please… don’t let me sink!
Sunlight glistens off pools alive with the buzz of insects, and butterflies hover above purple heather. You see patchworks of yellow, green and orange, or even red and crimson Sphagnum moss interspersed with tufts of fluffy, white cotton grass swaying in the breeze.
This is a peat bog.
A habitat formed over 100s-1000s of years as a wetland slowly filled with partly decayed vegetation. It’s home to many rare plants, birds and insects and they’re an essential part of Earth’s ecosystem.
Not only that but:
- UK peatlands hold around 3 billion tonnes of carbon
- Worldwide, peatlands store twice as much carbon as all the planet’s forests combined
- Peat is a huge carbon sink and without it the greenhouse effect would spiral even more rapidly out of control
Peat bogs are one of God’s amazing provisions keeping Earth finely balanced so we can survive.
Jesus talks about our need to be rooted in good soil in the Parable of the Sower (Matt 13: 1-9, 18-23). Well, if we didn’t have peat we wouldn’t even be here!
God is good 😁