Not too long ago, my spouse and I grew to become fascinated with documentaries about mountain climbers. It began with Free Solo, which tells the story of Alex Honnold and his ascent of one of the crucial troublesome rock faces in Yosemite Nationwide Park — with none ropes! We watched awestruck at what Honnold completed and, on the identical time, appalled by the dangers he took. What would drive a person to that?
Subsequent, The Alpinist landed in our playlist. The movie saved us on the sting of our seats because it adopted Marc-André Leclerc’s obsession with solo climbing America’s most harmful peaks. Leclerc’s longing to expertise the best heights finally led to his tragic dying.
Different tales of alpinism adopted, and after watching scores of individuals ante up their lives to summit the loftiest peaks on the planet, my spouse requested the apparent query: The place does that need come from? Why do mountains so mesmerize us?
Curious Cravings
Now, you might not really feel the attract of the alpine aesthetic as keenly as Honnold or Leclerc — or me. You could not ache to ascend the roof of the world or thirst for a glimpse of mountain majesty. However the observe of discerning needs — the power to interrogate the place your needs come from and the place they result in — sits proper on the coronary heart of knowledge (Proverbs 20:5).
Because the Puritans have been keen on stating, needs reveal the form of the soul. Typically man’s deepest longings — although they could connect to the mistaken objects — unveil what God made us for. To paraphrase Chesterton, Each man who walks right into a brothel is unconsciously searching for God. Can the identical be stated for everybody who walks up mountains? What does this need reveal about your soul and mine?
The place Heaven Touches Earth
Within the early 2000s, the United Nations declared 2009 “Worldwide Yr of Mountains” and devoted it with the slogan, “We’re all mountain individuals.” Regardless of the UN meant, that phrase summarizes properly the function mountains play in Scripture. From begin to end, the story of the Bible swirls round mountaintops, and the individuals of God actually are mountain individuals. Let me clarify.
To start with, God created every part, together with mountains (Psalm 90:2; 95:4; 104:8). God made man, gave him dominion, and positioned him within the backyard of Eden on God’s holy mountain (Ezekiel 28:14). This Edenic peak is paradigmatic of all different noteworthy mountains in Scripture as a result of right here God dwelt with man. On the mountain, heaven touches earth. Nonetheless, man’s keep on these blessed heights was short-lived. He selected dying, and down he went from paradise.
All through the remainder of God’s story, mountains grant a foretaste of when heaven and earth shall be renewed — God and man collectively once more. Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Elijah all met God on the mountain. The temple and tabernacle, each modeled after Eden, had their very own mini-mountains within the type of the altar. And Zion towered over all different rival heights as “the mount that God desired for his abode” (Psalm 68:15–16).
Jesus often sought God on the mountain (Matthew 14:23; Mark 6:46). However greater than that, Jesus was God on the mountain. He met man there in thunder and cloud (Mark 9:2–8), reuniting heaven and earth. All of the alpine cords of Scripture climax in Christ. He calls his personal to affix him on the mountain (Mark 3:13), and from the mountaintop he commissions his new humanity to mediate his dominion to the ends of the earth (Matthew 28:16–20). And in the future, these kingdom topics will climb additional up and additional in to dwell with God on the Mountain endlessly (Revelation 21:10).
In Scripture, mountains stand as metaphors in stone. They’re the place the place heaven meets earth, the place God descends to man. They’re monolithic reminders of the big bliss of Eden.
Anatomy of the Ache
Given the prominence of peaks in Scripture, we shouldn’t be stunned that the human soul longs to climb. However can we are saying extra about this need? What’s the anatomy of the alpine ache? Within the attract of the mountains, we will determine at the very least 5 longings God positioned within the human soul.
1. We lengthy to train dominion.
In 1923, shortly after geographers recognized Everest because the tallest mountain on earth, a reporter requested explorer George Mallory why he was hell-bent on summitting the height. He famously replied, “As a result of it’s there.” Mallory died the next yr making an attempt to be the primary man to place Everest beneath his toes. Right here we discover the traditional drive to take dominion.
On the unique mountaintop, God commanded man to subdue the earth (Genesis 1:28). The phrase subdue means to subjugate, to beat, to take mastery over. I can’t assist however think about God issuing this fee with a smile. It was virtually a dare. Understanding the very-goodness of the world he made, understanding the hovering heights and unsounded depths, understanding the waves and winds, understanding the wonders of water and the charms of snow, certainly God delighted to ask man to discover this cosmic playground!
He sealed this need for dominion in his picture bearers, particularly within the hearts of males. The urge to set foot on the best heights in essentially the most harmful methods and direst situations testifies to this starvation.
2. We lengthy to see magnificence.
A number of years in the past, my spouse and I purchased a van, transformed it to a camper, and toured the South Island of New Zealand. I used to be a child on a country-sized playground. I climbed each hill, cliff, crest, and mountain we may drive to. On these heights, I encountered magnificence that would pierce like an arrow, seize like a vice, and model like scorching iron — majesty that kindled delight and woke up need. I’ll always remember a few of these moments, however not due to the marvels in entrance of me. These experiences are etched in my thoughts as a result of I do know in my bones that I performed on the border of what I used to be made for — to see Magnificence.
“In Scripture, mountains stand as metaphors in stone. They’re the place the place heaven meets earth, the place God descends to man.”
The psalmist knew this stab of longing properly. Magnificence pierced him by way of, and the ache would by no means go away. It dominated him. Like Captain Ahab, he had one all-consuming pursuit: to gaze upon the great thing about the Lord (Psalm 27:4). We have been made to “behold the king in his magnificence” (Isaiah 33:17). Our souls shall be happy with nothing lower than basking in “the perfection of magnificence” shining within the face of Jesus Christ (Psalm 50:2).
The perilous majesty of mountains whets this urge for food — by God’s design. All of the wonders of lesser mountains remind us of the mountain of God. “His holy mountain, lovely in elevation, is the enjoyment of all of the earth, Mount Zion, within the far north” (Psalm 48:1–2).
3. We lengthy to take part in glory.
Nonetheless, don’t we wish extra, a lot greater than merely to see magnificence? We need to be swallowed up within the magnificence. We don’t simply need to behold; we need to turn into. To the touch will not be sufficient; oh, we need to be remodeled! We need to be a part of the nice dance. We would like in.
To place it one other means, we wish glory; we search it (Romans 2:7). We yearn to take part within the glory we have been made for — the glory we even now restlessly replicate (Romans 8:29–30). Which of us wouldn’t commerce all to listen to on the lips of our Lord, “Effectively achieved! Enter into the enjoyment of your Grasp”? This divine approval meets our deep need for glory. As C.S. Lewis explains, “Glory means good report with God, acceptance by God, response, acknowledgment, and welcome into the guts of issues. The door on which we’ve got been knocking all our lives will open finally” (The Weight of Glory, 41).
That knocking reverberates from mountain partitions and echoes from the best peaks. One caption interprets all of the numerous selfies taken on the world’s summits: “Is this not sufficient? Let me in!” When requested why he takes such climbing dangers, Honnold replied, “If you happen to succeed, everyone celebrates you as an enormous hero.” Honnold, like all made within the picture of God, needs glory, however he’s knocking on the mistaken door.
4. We lengthy to savor worry.
Have you ever ever questioned why so many individuals take pleasure in scary films? Or why the very threat that makes excessive sports activities hazardous additionally makes them wildly enticing? Or why “hazard tourism” attracts so many? Partially, the reply lies in our longing to savor worry.
There’s something uniquely thrilling about worry. Sure, the pleasure is a pointy one. It boasts a razor edge, however it stays, nonetheless, a real pleasure. Thus, Nehemiah admits that the servants of God delight to worry him (Nehemiah 1:11). They worship in worry and rejoice in trembling (Psalm 2:11). They fall earlier than God in awestruck adoration. We have been made to worry.
Subsequently, we hunt down what Rudulf Otto calls numinous experiences. Encounters that make us really feel small. Events that make us conscious that we’re mere creatures within the presence of a Creator wholly different. The alpine aesthetic preeminently grants this expertise. Describing the magnetism of the mountains, Leclerc defined, “One of many coolest emotions a human can expertise is to really feel so small in a world that’s so large.” The surprise of mountains scratches this itch. It each feeds and fuels our need to worry.
5. We lengthy to dwell with God.
Right here we come to the precept of our longing. The Bible shapes our imaginations to see the mountain as a spot the place the divine touches the mud. On the prime, the bodily world waxes translucent, and the presence of God peeks by way of. The winds that blow from the excessive nation thrum with the hope that in the future we’ll go away the shadowlands behind and ascend to the homeland we lengthy for. The promise of the dawn will burst upon us within the mild of the Lamb.
Mountains awaken this candy need. We need to dwell with God. The booming invitation of Aslan to “Come additional up! Come additional in!” leaves us breathless. Shakes us to the soul. We ache to ascend to Eden — however higher.
Huge granite arrows, mountains level past themselves to Somebody far larger and extra thrilling — to the One the place all the sweetness comes from. If we mistake them for the God they beckon us to know, they turn into stone idols, dragging their worshipers down. But when we heed their name to climb, we might admit with Lewis, “All my life the God of the Mountain has been wooing me” (Until We Have Faces, 87).
