“Come, let us go to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of Jacob’s God. There he will teach us his ways and we will walk in his paths.” For the Lord’s teaching will go out from Zion; his word will go out from Jerusalem. (Micah 4:1-2)

 

If you’re climbing up it, there’s nothing like a mountain to put you in your place.

As a kid, Janelle got tired of the mountain walks that her parents took her on. Her muscles ached and she felt bored of looking at trees so tall on either side of the trail that there was nothing else visible. Today, she lives in a busy city and misses the perspective those mountains and the natural world gave her.  She points out, “One of the …dangers of living in a human-made and human-oriented world… is that we are tempted to think of the world as human-sized, as fundamentally in proportion to us.[1]

The majesty and grandeur of a mountain do give us needed perspective. The mountains are bigger than we are, and God in His glory is bigger yet. He chose mountains as places where He revealed Himself to man. He chose a mountain as the place where He gave a picture of His plan to reconcile us to himself.

Eventually, we all face problems that feel mountain sized. We try to solve them in our own strength and realize they’re too big and we’re too small. But even as we flail, the God of the Bible, reaches out to us—the very God Who created and holds the mightiest mountains in His hands (Psalm 95:3-4).

Even in the middle of the busiest city, God Himself waits for you to call on Him with your mountain sized problem. Scripture encourages us, “Come, let us go to the mountain of the Lord…there he will teach us his ways and we will walk in his paths” (Micah 4:1-2a). You can go to God’s mountain in prayer for wisdom, courage and comfort.

[1] Aijian, Janelle. “The Advent Project.” Biola University Center for Christianity, Culture and the Arts, 31 Dec. 2023, ccca.biola.edu/advent/#day-dec-31.