What is so special about the mountains? 

I just got back from Colorado, and that was my first time back there in almost two years. There has always been something about mountains that lights my soul on fire. For as long as I can remember, my heart has ached to be there. My family has been taking trips to Colorado since I was around 8 years old. I don’t remember when it wasn’t a regular thing to be up there at least once a year. 

As I have gotten older, I started to ask myself why? 

What’s so special about a mountain? 

What happens in your soul when you see them? 

Why do you long to climb them or ski down them? 

Why do you feel peaceful and still when you are surrounded by them? 

A few years ago, I read a book by Stasi Eldridge called Captivating. This book began to answer those questions. Eldredge has a quote in the book that explains that this is one of God’s ways of wooing us.

His beauty and creation is a visual, tangible reminder of his love for me. 

When I get off the top of ski lift and look out at the expanse of mountain tops or when I’m in the Arkansas river white water rafting and look up and see gigantic mountains, I hear Father telling me, “You are the one I love, my beautiful daughter, the one I choose to call mine.”

I experience a kind of love that nothing else on this earth can give me: the love of a perfect father. 

All doubts flee. 

All fear ceases. 

All the lies get quiet, and for a few moments, I believe Father is letting me in on a fraction of the fullness we will experience when we are with him forever in eternity. 

That’s what Father is doing for all of us. His creation breathes out his love for us. How sweet of God to give us some tangible evidence of his love. 

This time after I got back from CO, I wanted to dive deeper into this once again. I opened the Bible and looked through all the times the Bible talks about mountains. 

What is their significance? 

What does God use them for? 

In the history of the Bible, what have they done for God’s people? 

After looking into these questions, there seems to be a common theme. 

Time and time again, the mountains were a meeting place for God and man. 

We first see this with the story of Noah. Noah was the guy that God called to build the ark. The world had become so wicked and sinful that he decided he was going to send a great flood to wipe the earth clean and start over. He saved Noah and his family and two of every kind of animal. What a sweet act of grace. In Genesis 4:8 it says, “and in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat … in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen.” After months of destruction, God rests Noah on a mountain. Not only that but it also says that the first thing that was seen as the waters went away were mountain tops. The first visible sign of new life and God’s glory. 

Next we see God meet with Abraham on a mountain. Abraham, one of our fathers of faith, was called by God to sacrifice his son, Isaac. This was a big deal because Abraham and his wife Sarah had prayed for a child for years and years and years. God eventually answered their prayers when they were around 100 years old and gave them Isaac. In Genesis 22 it says “take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” Abraham is faithful. He goes up to the mountain, binds Issac, knife in hand, seconds away from killing his son, and God stops him. He sent an angel to tell Abraham I have seen your faithfulness and will provide a substitute. Abraham has a life altering encounter with God on Mt. Moriah. God came down to Abraham as Abraham climbed up, and they met. Mt. Moriah would later become the place David wanted to build the temple because of this moment. It was a place of God’s presence. 

Moses was a close companion of God, maybe none so close right up until Jesus. Exodus 34 says that “there has not arisen a prophet since in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face.” The phrase “face to face” is a big deal. It’s personal. It’s close. Moses knew God’s face. How amazing! Most of those “face to face” encounters happened on a mountain. In Exodus 3, when God called Moses, He appeared to him in a burning bush on “Horeb, the mountain of God.” The first interaction Moses and God had together was on top of a mountain. God called his name and Moses answered “Here I am.” This is when God tells Moses to lead the Isrealites out of captivity. In Exodus 19 this happens again. Verse 20 says, “The Lord came down on Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain. And the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.” God gave Moses the law to take back down the mountain to the Isrealites. This happens once again in chapter 24. God calls Moses up to the mountain again, and this time gives him the stone that the 10 Commandments were written on. Verse 16 says, “The glory of the Lord dwelt on Mt. Siani.” Moses and God engaged in this dance Moses’ whole life. God would call him up to the mountain top, and they would meet. Moses’ last moments were even on a mountain top looking out over the promised land. God revealed himself to Moses on these mountains. Moses grew to know God as a friend on these mountains as well. 

Jesus is one more incredible example of this. Many times throughout the Gospels the Bible talks about Jesus withdrawing to the mountains. In Matthew 14:23 right before Jesus walks on the water, it says “after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray.” Again in Matthew 5:1 Jesus “went up on the mountain.” This was right before Jesus preached his most famous sermon. It’s even called “The Sermon on the Mount.” In Luke 6:12 once again it says, “In these days he went out the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God.” This prayer comes right before Jesus picks his 12 Apostles. When Jesus needed strength from his Father, he went by himself to the mountain. This was his meeting place with his Father. Jesus knew the importance of meeting with God which is crazy to me because he was fully God, but He was also fully man. He got tired. He got angry. He had moments of desperation. Every time one of those moments is mentioned in the Bible, Jesus draws on the strength of his Father. Also notice that right after these moments of solitude on a mountaintop, Jesus did something important and powerful. These were moments of heavenly rest for Jesus. These were soul-satisfying moments of prayer and worship for Jesus. 

This kind of mountaintop experience happens to Peter, James and John as well. In Matthew 9 Jesus leads these 3 guys “up a high mountain by themselves.” On this mountain Jesus shows Peter, James, John his transfigured body, his heavenly body. Matthew describes this by saying, “his face shone like the sun and his clothes white as light.” Once again a glimpse of the glory of God and heaven is revealed on a mountain. Jesus lets them see more of who he really is in all of his glory. He invites them to come to know himself in a different way, a better way. 

I feel the same way when I am on a mountain. I don’t hear God’s voice or meet God face to face or see Jesus in all of his heavenly glory, but I do believe that God uses mountains as special meeting places between him and his people. 

Now, hear me when I say this, God’s not limited to meeting us in one place. He doesn’t dwell only on a mountain top. He is all around us at all times, and that is the gift and power of the Holy Spirit that we have now that guys like Abraham and Moses didn’t have in their time. He is as real and as close in Arlington, Texas as he is Buena Vista, Colorado. However I think there is a little something extra that I experience when I’m in the mountains.

I think I hear him clearer because I have something tangible to fix my eyes on that is purely the work of his hands. 

I think distractions from the noise of everyday life subside when I am in the mountains.

It’s not as hard to focus my heart’s attention on his voice. I have always felt that way whether I had words for it or not. Time and time again the mountains have been a connecting point for God and his people. He comes down to us and calls us up to him. Mountains have been a meeting place for the noise of the world to get quieter and the truth of Father to get louder. 

What a beautiful gift Father so gracefully gives us. Not only is he so near and so close in our everyday lives, but he creates places of retreat like the mountains for life-altering, faith-deepening encounters with Him. It just blows me away. Thank you, Father.