When my life becomes too ordinary, when my perspective of every relationship and every situation gets clouded, and when I forget what my life means, there has only been one place that represents the remedy. I flee from civilization and go to the most natural place I know. I get back to creation. Of all the places I have fled to, Yosemite National Park has created the greatest change. It has helped me to make a new start.
Maybe it is the altitude that makes me feel so refreshed, or perhaps it is the cleaner or thinner air. Reflecting on the natural processes of this creation could be what does it. It might be all of these things, but I really believe it is more than just the creation that can produce such a drastic change in my entire being. The Creator is at work in Yosemite. That is not to say that the Creator is not at work in every other place imaginable, but for me the clarity and beauty of His work is the most undeniably obvious in the wilderness, and in my experience, Yosemite Valley.
After being in the thick, smoky, smoggy air of Los Angeles and a long, air-conditioned drive away from the workings of society, the first step and concurrent first breath of the much purer air of Yosemite brings life and joy not only to my lungs but to my entire being. My whole body, mind, and soul sigh as if I have been travelling and even struggling my whole life to reach this point in time. The best part about this moment is knowing that it is just the beginning of a timeless journey. And it will be a journey, no doubt; travelling from one physical place to another, but also a much grander path from one point of being to another much improved one.
As I walk on this journey, I have the opportunity to meet with our creator in a truly unique way. In my life, I am rarely able to slow down to the degree I can slow down here. In this place, I have extended fellowship with God. There is nothing I could be doing other than just being with and thinking about God, and there is no place where it has ever been easier. There are no friends to talk with, no classes to attend, no homework to do, no music to entertain or books to distract. There is just me—naked, sinful, vulnerable, and weak. In this primitive state, there is no choice but to get back to the foundations of who I am so that Christ can build on that foundation as He will. It seems like a love affair to me. I can sneak away with Him for awhile and nothing other than thoughts of Him enter my mind. During this time, I feel like I am the only one He has eyes for. Of course I am aware that He loves each unique person as much as He loves me, but that is hard to believe in this place because it does not make sense to me how He could possibly have enough love for every person to receive as much as I have.
As I sit in the shade of a tree and watch the entire valley below me and the entire sky above me, I gather a renewed perspective of my life.. In this way, I have the opportunity to think of the world from God’s point of view. Especially when life is difficult, this perspective sharpens my vision of the unseen, and lets the immediate, tangible things drop into proper place. My spiritual defenses are strengthened while I “fix my eyes not on what is seen, but what is unseen. For…what is unseen is eternal” (2 Cor. 4:18).
In this place, my creative senses feel awakened. It makes me want to create something, anything. This place makes me want to paint, or sculpt, or make music. Sometimes when I am painting, I am so enveloped in every detail of the image that my face gets so close to the canvas that my nose gets paint on it. It is usually at that instant when I realize that I haven’t seen the painting in its entirety in a while, and I need to step back several feet and see how all the details come together to create an accomplished work. Yosemite is where I can step back to examine the whole canvas of my life.
As I lay on my back watching the illuminated sky and the stars skittering across it, I think about how I am seeing the stars years after they have passed by. I deeply breathe in this incredible mountain air, and I think about how good it is just to be alive. It is in this moment that I can prayerfully consider my life before the Lord. I can think about important decisions that I have to make and the fears that feel like a heavy weight. In this wilderness, God gives me plans and purposes so that I will be ready when opportunity comes. When I swim in the clear mountain lakes, when I sleep on the cliffs staring at the stars, and when I watch the storms of light and color pass by, I feel like every thought comes easier. Every passion that I have is more evident. Life seems simpler. My heart feels at home. I feel prepared to take on whatever may happen next.
I can see not only my own life in an insane lucidity, but I feel like I can make connections in my life from Yosemite. Not only connections in life, but even more so, I feel connected to life itself. When people and the world seem fractured, broken, and isolated, I look around and see how much control the Creator has over absolutely everything, and I am encouraged. I am reminded that there is a plan, a design, and a power beyond the visible world that provides meaning, comfort, and confidence. The air, the rocks, the trees, the open sky all remind me that we are a part of something larger; we are not isolated from one another or the earth and the life on it. From here, I am encouraged to live knowing that we have deep roots in our environment, the earth, and the cycles of nature. From here, I can see how I can live knowing each person and each situation is connected in some way beyond our imagination.
This journey through Yosemite is a great one that I am sure to make many more times in my life, but for now this is enough. I can leave this haven feeling an immense amount of gratitude. I leave purified: without fear and without envy. When I am in a place that screams the beauty and greatness of God like Yosemite does, I have hope that things will fall into place. I have no doubt that transformation takes place in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. This is not a normal place. This is a deeply spiritual place where God is present. For me, it is a place of transformation, a place to evaluate goals, get direction, make important decisions, and prepare for opportunities to come. It might seem like it is the things that I do in Yosemite that make it so spiritual, but really it is Yosemite that makes me do things that are inherently spiritual.
It is in this place that I am content. It is here that I feel at home. It feels like I have finally found where I belong. Yosemite is a place where I can expect God to meet me. It is a divine place in this material world. It is everything about how the trees, the light, the rocks, the dirt, the air, and the water come together that opens me up to see God most clearly.
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