Chapter 3—With Nature and With God
The Savior’s life on earth was a life of communion with nature and with God. In this communion He revealed for us the secret of a life of power.MHH 23.1
Jesus was an earnest, constant worker. No other person was ever so weighted with responsibilities. Never another carried so heavy a burden of the world’s sorrow and sin. Never another worked with such self-consuming zeal for the good of humanity. Yet His was a life of health. Physically as well as spiritually He was represented by the sacrificial lamb, “without blemish and without spot.” 1 Peter 1:19. In body and in soul He was an example of what God designed all humanity to be through obedience to His laws.MHH 23.2
As the people looked upon Jesus, they saw a face in which divine compassion was blended with conscious power. He seemed to be surrounded with an atmosphere of spiritual life. Though His manners were gentle and unassuming, He impressed people with a sense of power that was hidden yet could not be wholly concealed.MHH 23.3
During His ministry He was continually pursued by crafty and hypocritical men who were seeking His life. Spies were on His track, watching His words to find some occasion against Him. The keenest and most highly cultured minds of the nation tried to defeat Him in controversy. But never could they gain an advantage. They had to withdraw from the field, confounded and put to shame by the lowly Teacher from Galilee. Christ’s teaching had a freshness and a power such as mortals had never before known. Even His enemies were forced to confess, “‘No man ever spoke like this Man!’” John 7:46.MHH 23.4
The childhood of Jesus, spent in poverty, had been uncorrupted by the artificial habits of a corrupt age. Working at the carpenter’s bench, bearing the burdens of home life, learning the lessons of obedience and toil, He found recreation amidst the scenes of nature, gathering knowledge as He sought to understand nature’s mysteries. He studied the Word of God, and His hours of greatest happiness were found when He could leave the scene of His labors to go into the fields, to meditate in the quiet valleys, and hold communion with God on the mountainside or amid the trees of the forest. The early morning often found Him in some secluded place, meditating, searching the Scriptures, or praying. With the voice of singing He welcomed the morning light. With songs of thanksgiving He cheered His hours of work and brought heaven’s gladness to the toil-worn and disheartened.MHH 24.1
During His ministry, to a great degree Jesus lived an outdoor life. His journeys from place to place were made on foot, and much of His teaching was given in the open air. In training His disciples He often withdrew from the confusion of the city to the quiet of the fields, as more in harmony with the lessons of simplicity, faith, and self-abnegation He desired to teach them. It was beneath the sheltering trees of the mountainside, only a little distance from the Sea of Galilee, that He called the Twelve to the apostolate and gave the Sermon on the Mount.MHH 24.2
Christ loved to gather the people about Him under the blue heavens, on a grassy hillside, or on a beach beside the lake. Here, surrounded by the works of His own creation, He could turn their thoughts from the artificial to the natural. In the growth and development of nature were revealed the principles of His kingdom. As the people lifted their eyes to the hills of God and saw the wonderful works of His hand, they learned precious lessons of divine truth. In the future the lessons of the divine Teacher would thus be repeated to them by the things of nature. The mind would be uplifted and the heart would find rest.MHH 24.3
Jesus often released His disciples for a season, that they might visit their homes and rest; but they never succeeded in drawing Him away from His labors. All day He ministered to the throngs that came to Him, and at eventide, or in the early morning, He went away to the sanctuary of the mountains for communion with His Father.MHH 24.4
Often His incessant labor and the conflict with the enmity and false teaching of the rabbis left Him so utterly wearied that His mother and brothers, and even His disciples, feared that His life would be sacrificed. But as He returned from the hours of prayer that closed the toilsome day, they noted the look of peace on His face, and the freshness, life, and power that seemed to pervade His whole being. From hours spent alone with God He came forth, morning by morning, to bring the light of heaven to the world.MHH 24.5