The Mountains Are Calling...

As I rest in these summer months, with a schedule that temporarily allows for some healthy boredom and quiet reflection, I find myself looking back to where I was exactly one year ago: Montana. Dubbed as “the last best place” for its unexpected and quiet beauty, Montana is a place one could explore mountains, discover hidden lakes, ride rivers, and take distant hikes among the trees. How I miss “getting lost” in such a place, for in the midst of such nature I found a deeper connection to the divine. Prayers of thanksgiving and gratitude of the immense loveliness around me seemed to more easily leave my lips and my soul could feel the love of God enveloping me. Now living in San Diego, I can appreciate the nature around me, especially not being land locked (aka access to the ocean); however, a part of me senses this longing, this call to be in the mountains once again. I feel this longing reverberating in my bones, inviting me to step away from the noise and “get lost” in the quietness of the mountains once again. Upon hearing such an invitation, I immediately thought of John Muir’s wildly popular quote:

“The mountains are calling and I must go.”

While this quote makes a great desktop picture (Just type this quote into your google search bar and you will find some pretty awesome pictures. It will be challenging to choose. Trust me.), it highlights the alluring quality of the mountains that even when it beckons, we find it hard to refuse. Even Jesus was beckoned too. In three of the gospels, I found verses where Jesus went off to the mountains to pray:

“After doing so, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When it was evening he was there alone.”

-       Matthew 14:23

“And when he had taken leave of them, he went off to the mountain to pray.”

-       Mark 6:46

“In those days he departed to the mountain to pray, and he spent the night in prayer to God.”

-       Luke 6:12

Many would agree that the quiet and breathtaking views have something to do with this desire to retreat to the mountains, but I believe there is more to it. I think Jesus would back me up here for apparently he did too. I recently read in a meditation this quote by St. Augustine that emphasizes the role of all nature in our lives:

“Heaven and earth, and all things, tell me to love Thee. My Lord, whatever I behold on the earth, or above the earth, all speak to me, and exhort me to love Thee; because all assure me that Thou hast made them for the love of me.”

Could it be that God, through the magnificence of the mountains, is calling us to a deeper love for Him? Could it be that God made the mountains because He wants to remind us of His love? Now, I’m not going to get into all the scientific explanations of how mountains were made. I’m sure we all heard that in elementary school. I am only suggesting that beyond all of the science, there is a divinity to it all and that perhaps the reason the mountains call us is because, in the midst of business and noise of life, we can lose touch with God. Perhaps the mountains call us because God calls us and He calls us because He loves us. How beautiful is that? Personally, it gives new meaning to me whenever I behold anything of nature, not just the mountains. Trees, flowers, rivers, streams, sunsets, sunrises, ect. are all a beckoning to a deeper love with God; a love that transforms and restores peace in our hearts. So the next time you feel the mountains, or any other part of nature, calling you, remember that that calling could actually be God calling you closer to Him. And you must go.