“Let them
know that You, whose name is the Lord -- that You alone are the Most High over
all the earth.” (Psalm 83:18 NIV)
Mountains
have always been God-places. A mountain, if you think about it, is where heaven
and earth come closest to each other. And there is something transcendent about
a mountain. A mountain is a place of vision. In ancient times the remoteness
and inaccessibility of mountains gave them an aura of mystery and power. Still
today they produce a sense of wonder and awe that there is a higher reality. We
are mountain climbers. We are mountain seekers.
Height is
always suggestive to us of transcendence and power and vision. We venerate
height. In the ancient world, altars were generally built on "high
places," where sacrifices would be offered by high priests. Even today we
speak of high ideals and high achievements, and politicians run for high
office. People of greater height actually make higher salaries than shorter people.
When someone becomes pretentious, we tell him to get off his high horse. We use
drugs to give us a sense of temporary transcendence, give them names like
"ecstasy," and say they make us "high." When we become
addicted, we seek the help of a higher power.
Great heights
inspire us, but they also humble us. They speak to us of our own smallness. No
matter how hard we try, human beings are unable to refrain from worship. [Dostoevsky wrote,] "The one essential condition of
human existence is that man should always be able to bow down before something
infinitely great."
-- John Ortberg in “Faith &
Doubt”
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