But did you also breathe another small sigh of relief when you heard that another terrorist attack in Sydney had been foiled by our ever-vigilant federal police?

Did you feel a twinge of sympathy or guilt that you aren't living in India where monsoonal rains have caused a wall to collapse and 27 people died?

Not to mention thanking God that you weren't fated to live in a place plagued by war, abject poverty, disease or famine. Life in our country is good by any global standard.

How then should we live? In the Bible (Acts 17:26-28), Paul reminds us that it is God who has set the boundaries of when and where people live.

God's oversight of human existence is presented as a reason for humans to seek God. Ultimately it is reassuring. Nothing takes God by surprise. We owe our very existence to God's purposeful love.

Our response is to then live gratefully under God's authority, and to then treat all other humans with whom we share this planet with similar grace and generosity.

In fact, to treat our planet with grateful respect as a privilege to be enjoyed, but not selfishly exploited.

Belief in God's sovereignty seems to be becoming a bit unfashionable these days, especially when it is waved as a moralistic weapon.

Maybe it is time to rediscover the just and generous God, who longs for a positive relationship with and between humanity and creation.

Back I go to the kookaburras and lorikeets to remind me that there is a time and a place to be, to reframe and reconnect with the sovereign Creator.