Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Timpanogos

Recalling the time Caleb and I spent a day on Mt Timpanogos, we took our time in the meadows, rock fields and slides just below the peak. We noticed the flowers, the rocks, the animals, and realized it all had been deliberately arranged into a most beautifully designed garden. We knew no rangers or volunteers with the park service had done it. We realized God had done it deliberately. So we basked all day in the upper meadows and saddles and then watched the sun cast its last blaze of glory upon the peaks to contrast the shadow filling the upper basin like black water. We lay on our backs, on boulders on the rock slide below the peak and looked straight up at the cliffs. We bathed in the quiet foreboding of the mountain. It's big and scary. I told Caleb I had always felt a strong haunting from that, like I could feel the spirits of indians who had passed before. But I know that God is not in the wind nor the rock, it only seems that way sometimes. And it is easy to understand how the indian and the priest felt something, just as we did. While it was yet day, we observed other hikers. Hiking was their purpose. They tromped past, up the mountain. They marched back down at a chipper pace, not looking left or right - a happy occupation among so much beauty, when one enjoys good health and a spring in their step. It was plain to see that they did not see how the garden had been deliberately arranged. Their purpose was to hike the mountain and get back home in time for things they needed to be home for. But our purpose, Caleb and I, was to be in the mountain. So when one opens the scriptures, it is good to have the purpose of immersing oneself and being in there rather than getting something read or thinking about how much they have left to read - getting from A to B, so that they can go on to the next thing. Similarly, Sunday was ordained of God. His guarantee is that you need not give any thought to your workaday troubles or things on this planet, for one day out of every seven. He has you covered if you stop, get off, and go see Him for a day. See also Isaiah 58.