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Heaven Touching Earth

Heaven Touching Earth

Last updated on: January 29, 2025 at 8:59 pm by Brad Wilcox

Heaven Touching Earth 2025-01-29T20:59:54-04:00 Brad Wilcox

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Heaven Touching Earth as the Savior Prays

Tissot/Wikimedia Commons

When marveling at the beauty and symbolism of mountains, I like to think of them as places of heaven touching earth. Thinking of our Savior’s life on this earth, I am reminded of this sacred connection.

Time with His Father

Jesus went to the mountains to spend time with His Father, in places and at times when They would not be disturbed. We find in the New Testament times when He sought this particular closeness.

Jesus went to be in heaven touching earth in preparing to call his twelve Apostles.

In these days he went into the hills to pray; and all night he continued in prayer to God. And when it was day he called unto him his disciples: and of them he chose twelve, whom he called apostles. (Luke 6:20-12).

We might conclude that their call came from the Father and the Son. The first four were exactly where Jesus needed them, as well as the state of meekness brought on by a no-catch night. As He arranged a net-breaking catch, Jesus gave them a symbol of the nature of their call. Peter, Andrew, James, and John came immediately—unquestioning, leaving James and John’s father to deal with all the fish.

Another time of mountain retreat was after Jesus had expanded five barley loaves and two fishes to feed 5,000. He realized that in their excitement over the miracle the crowd would try to force Him to become a king; so He went to a mountain alone, prayed, and remained there until He had to rescue His disciples from a boat in a violent storm (John 6:14-16).

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland noted the Savior’s statement after a particularly taxing time; Jesus signed, “O faithless generation . . . how long shall I suffer you?”

Elder Holland continued, “He had occasion to ask that question more than once during His ministry. No wonder He longed for the prayerful solitude of mountaintops!”

Healing, Teaching, and Other Blessings

On a particular mountain, great crowds regularly brought individuals who suffered from illnesses and disabilities, laying them at the Savior’s feet. He healed them all. Matthew recorded, “the crowd was in awe and worshiped God when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled healthy, the lame walking and the blind seeing” (15:29-31). The Savior’s perfect compassion reached out to all. This was a chosen place, with the healing powers of heaven touching earth.

The Mount of Beatitudes was another place where Christ’s followers experienced heaven touching earth. I’ve previously written of the Savior’s focus on higher laws, teaching his followers how to purify their attitudes and desires to strengthen the motivation for their behavior (see Matthew 5-7).

But the tender beatitudes, telling of blessed behavior, turned to strong warnings to pluck out an offending eye or cut off an offending hand. Loving enemies and being “therefore perfect” made a good climax. Comfort, with positive images, was mixed with warning, with images less to be desired. Matthew’s account concluded with the people being “astonished” and recognizing Him “as one having authority.”

There is so much for Christ’s followers of all times, places, contexts, and conditions. It can be exciting to find something marvelous that might have slid past us before (as things sometimes can with something as meaning-laden as the Sermon on the Mount). For example, Elder Neil L. Anderson recently urged us to emphasize a life-altering consideration in one of the most oft-quoted beatitudes: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.”

As we do our part, His promise is that we will be called the “children of God.” Every person on earth is the “offspring” of God [see Acts 17:28] , but to be called the “children of God” means much, much more. As we come unto Jesus Christ and make covenants with Him, we become “his seed” and “heirs of the kingdom,” “children of Christ, his sons, and his daughters.”

Sacred Ordinances

Heaven touching earth on mountains has included the presence of heaven for sacred ordinances.

Heavenly Testimony

No one knows which high mountain was the Mount of Transfiguration, but all Christianity knows what happened there: who came up from earth, and who was present from heaven.

Peter, James, and John needed to witness the Savior’s glory, to hear the Father introduce and bear testimony of His Son, and to see and hear Moses and Elijah interacting with Jesus. Also they would receive keys from the visitors to be handed down to future generations.

The Savior’s face shone “as the sun” and His clothing was “white as the light.” As Moses and Elijah were talking with Him, Peter stumbled for something to say (but not particularly appropriate for the brilliant scene and divine participants). As he tried to speak, a “bright cloud” came over them all, and the Father’s voice came from that cloud: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him.”

What more testimony could be given? At this point, the apostles were terrified. They “fell on their face.” Jesus gently touched and reassured them, “Arise, and be not afraid.” Jesus only was with them. Walking down the mountain, Jesus commanded them to keep this experience secret until He had come back after His death “(Matthew 17:1–9).

Greatest Love and Sacrifice

What our Prophet, President Nelson, refers to as the “greatest single act of love of all recorded history” began on another mountain; heaven was touching earth to commence its holiest and most significant happening. At the Mount of Olives, in an olive tree garden called Gethsemane, meaning “oil press,” our Savior Jesus Christ took upon himself the pressure and pain of “all” men—bearing its massive load.

Jesus took Peter, James, and John with Him, but had them wait some distance away. He needed to make the final commitment and face intolerable suffering alone, except for the angel who was sent to be with and comfort Him.

He explained,

Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit—and would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink. (Doctrine and Covenants 19:18)

Jesus knew what His Atonement would require, and He knew His Father’s plan and will. He did not “shrink.” Apostle Jeffrey R. Holland emphasized,

I speak of the loneliest journey ever made and the unending blessings it brought to all in the human family. I speak of the Savior’s solitary task of shouldering alone the burden of our salvation. Rightly He would say: “I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me.

Our Savior completed His purpose for coming into this world, obeying His Father’s plan and His Father’s will. Our Savior brought us heaven touching earth on the mountains.

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