I live about 20 minutes away from a beautiful canyon filled with a stunning national forest and over 200 natural climbing routes. Whenever I have the chance, I go up there to explore, hike, rock climb, and sometimes just to think. A lot of my friends joke about how I pretty much live up there. Secretly, I wish I did.
The truth is that I've never been a big city person. There's something about concrete, construction, noise pollution, and crowds that really turns me off. Whenever I've stayed in a city, I've felt the loneliest I ever have in my life, like I'm missing something significant. I feel too chaotic and too estranged.
I always thought that was a weird quirk of mine, but recently, I've come to realize why I might feel such a distinct spiritual/emotional divide when I'm in the mountains versus being in the city. Scripturally and physically, there's a big difference between these two settings. As I sat in my Institute class last night, I had a spark of revelation that continues that theme: our Savior is never represented by cities, but by the nature in the scriptures. And that brings up enough mind-blowing symbolism that I need to talk about it with you guys.
Symbols of Christ in the Natural World
When Christ is talked about in scripture, he's frequently referred to with symbols.