I spent years climbing mountains. It was not uncommon for my friends and me to size up a new conquest by studying a mountain from a distance and deciding whether or not we were up to the challenge of scaling it.
But as long as we were eyeing it from a distance, it was still just a mountain in the distance—and we were only dreamers. We might have felt close to nature, or maybe even prideful of past physical accomplishments as we contemplated those climbs. But it wasn’t until we actually made the climb and reached the peak that we could revel in the feeling of being one with the mountain and in harmony with all that was within our view.
Isn’t this analogous to how many people sometimes think of God—a Deity that is magnificent but far off—“watching over us” as if we exist on a lower plane?
