Closer to God

It's a beautiful day outside today.  Even though there's some slight cloud cover, the sun continues to make itself present and felt.  My friend's sweat after moving 500lbs of paving stone today can account for that.
 
Although I'm presently in an office without windows  and working on a computer, I've still found some time to think about how relaxing it would be to go for a walk in our local conservation area today.  When I think about this, I automatically think about how many times I've had conversations with people about how they find God in the outdoors.
 
I'll be the last person to deny a connection with God when we spend time outside of our homes, but I sometimes wonder what people mean by "finding God in Nature."  Unfortunately, the idea of "finding God in Nature" has become a bit cliche, so now I try to think seriously about what the experience means to me.
 
There are two ways that I see people conceive of becoming closer to God through Nature.  One is an idyllic, "back to grassroots," clean, sanitized, Thomas Kincaid conception.  We somehow think of Nature as a Disney-designed warm and comfortable place that should serve our personal needs.  We find God in in this sort of Nature when we sit out on our back porch, or we go for a quick walk through the park.  Nature is around us.  We smell it somewhat, and we leave it with nary a scratch on us. 
 
Here, God is a safe, loving, comforting, and ubiquitous presence.
 
I  believe that we find a second conception of God when we experience Nature in a different way.  When we go on portages, hikes, sail voyages, and mountain climbs, I think we have a very different experience of "finding God in Nature."  As opposed to a walk in the park, hikes can leave you tired, sweaty, exhausted, and possibly scarred or injured in some way.  What does God look like here?
 
I believe he looks the same as in the first conception; however, for me, this seems like a more real and authentic way of "finding God in Nature."  In the first conception, God is like a two-dimensional surface that we look at from a remove.  We look at Him in Nature, and we politely ask him to stay in our comfort zone.  When we move into Nature in a real and physically-altering way, we invite God into a much more personal experience.  Now, we do not just look at God from afar; we bleed with Him.  We feel Him irritate our skin through His Creation.  He causes us to shiver in His presence through elements such as freezing rain.
 
I guess what I'm trying to get at is, it is one thing to say we "find God in Nature" when we do not actually enter into Nature.  It is a far more rewarding and complete vision of God when we do actually enter Nature in a hard and challenging way.