The Well-Being Australia chairman, a Baptist minister of 32 years, M V Tronson had seen the vastness of Australia from the air numerous times and he had crossed the Nullarbor by rail, but it wasn't until that 1995 evening, seeing it from a different perspective, did it dawn upon him the significance of how vast this nation really was.
"Australians, like many other people across the world love the green of their countryside. In Australia, we have learnt the beauty of the gum and wattles, the mountain ranges of green (where the Eucalyptus appears blue grey from a distance) and our desire to live in and amongst the green," M V Tronson noted.
Herein lies a core issue associated with 'green' in Australia: 'bush fires'. Late Night Live commentator Phillip Adams, on a recent program, spoke of this issue as being highly politicised. And it is - and it is also emotional.
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/latenightlive/stories/2009/2501237.htm
For example, M V Tronson says, he loves green himself, and established a tourist ministry, Australia's Bush Orchestra (1996-2005), a natural bush theme park along an Ironbark bush path under the birdsong of the Bell Miner (Bellbirds) in Moruya on the New South Wales south coast.
There is a dichotomy however, as illustrated by Australia's Bush Orchestra. His house was placed at the minimum allowed bush fire distance. "There is a genuine passion to live within the environs of our beautiful Australian bush yet realising that a bush fire could wipe it out within minutes," M V Tronson mused.
The question becomes, how close a relationship might we draw from Jesus' story of those bridesmaids who prepared themselves with additional oil, as a principle, to being prepared as best as one might be, for a natural disaster such as a bush fire.
Is a natural disaster such as the February 2009 Victorian bush fires beyond any reasonable preparation where the politicisation of 'Green' is an after effect.
Or, is there another biblical injunction that might be more applicable. Jesus' own comments on the collapsed building construction in the Gospel of Luke, where workers lost their lives, that such events highlight the eternal dimension. Is this the principle?
"This is a debate that has many different angles in which the well-being of those involved has to be primarily focused, it becomes in part, an ongoing issue for pastoral care supporting those who have been so very traumatised," M V Tronson said.