Jesus helped me through the night

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I am a graduate student at University of New Mexico (UNM) in Albuquerque. Now, in the other states, "university of" something might have different schools that are on the same level (kind of like University of California has Berkeley, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, and lots of other schools). But not so in New Mexico. Basically the one in Albuquerque is the only one that even has graduate school -- and speaking of undergrad, the undergrad programs on other campuses might be quite limitted. For example the UNM campus I am about to speak of doesn't even have math or physics major, as surprising as it sounds.

In any case, for some time I wanted to visit Valencia campus of UNM just to see what its like, but I kept putting it off since the nearest train station to that is Las Lunas and its quite a bit of distance from it which is a big obstacle since I don't drive. Few days ago, I decided to visit Los Lunas for its own sake, but then when I got off the train I saw that little free bus that was going somewhere. I asked where it goes, and the driver said to UNM Valencia, so I didn't want to miss an opportunity. I knew it was 5 PM and so there was a decent possibility it was the last bus, but I decided not to ask, since I didn't want to miss an opportunity, and if worst comes to worse I can take UBER. I guess the driver was quite surprised since she asked me like three or four different times if that campus is where I wanted to go, and I just kept saying yes.

In any case, it was in fact the last bus. And when I tried to get an UBER back, it kept saying no cars available. Also it was in the middle of nowhere, with only small village nearby, so there were no hotels and no places to eat. At first I was going to spend the night on a bench on campus, but then cop told me they are closing the campus for the night so I had to leave. Now, if it was earlier, I would have tried to walk to the train station. It was 8 mile walk so it would have taken me like three hours or something. But the problem was that the cop asked me to leave at 7, and it was going to be dark in less than 2 hours, so I had no idea how I would be able to get to that train station when its still light. I guess I could run, I am a runner, but there are a bunch of dogs that guard houses so I was too scared to run. In fact I started walking by the desert sand just to be far away from all those houses, and running fast on the sand is quite difficult. I guess, because of those dogs, I was really scared of walking/running when it would be dark since I might not see a certain dog somewhere. That, plus also few years ago I stepped on the snake when it was dark, so I realized that if I were to avoid walking on the road (to avoid dogs) and walk on a sand I might set myself up to step on the other snake which I didn't want either. So I was contemplating that maybe I should find some place far away from all the houses and simply spend the night there and then in the morning I can decide whether I want to walk towards the train station or get back to campus and take bus to train station from there (I was leaning to the latter option since I was still a lot closer to campus than to the train station).

In any case, when it began to get dark, I was close to the hill, and then on the other side of the road from the hill there was an open field that was over a mile long. So I thought of Matt 24:16 and decided to go to the hill. I know you might say I took that verse out of context which is what most people were saying to me for the past few years, but I guess I had that obsession about that verse and what it means to us today, so that obsession made me decide to go up the hill: I had no reason to be anywhere else, so why not? In any case, the hill was quite difficult to climb, but when I was finally on top of it, there were three big crosses, probably another two or three smaller crosses, a bunch of cross-necklesses thrown around, and a few icons (with broken glass), lots of pamphlets -- most of them Catholic, but I saw one pamphlet about a Baptist church somewhere, and also there was two small lamps on the shoulder level of one of the cross and the other lamp at the top of the other cross. Those lamps were very small and quite dim, but at least if I wanted to study really badly (after all, I knew I wasn't going to be able to sleep, so at least I should study so that I don't waste all those hours) I could take my textbook really close to one of those lights and read it (and no, I am not talking about studying religion -- I was actually going to study theoretical physics). The other possibility was to write some physics paper on a laptop, which is easier than reading the textbook since the laptop would give off its own light that is much brighter, but at the same time it only has so much battery. So what I ended up doing is I tried to read the textbook for a while, with very little success. Then I tried to sleep, again without any success (there was a bunch of glass at the ground and when I walked few steps away there were a bunch of sharp desert grass and stuff) so then I did my physics paper on a laptop that lasted a good few hours.

In any case, what I was going to tell you is that, the moment I found that place, I felt a lot more calm: I felt like "I am not in the middle of the street, I am sort of at home, at Jesus' home!" And then I kept saying out loud "thank you Jesus" and was thanking Him for showing me His home. Now you see, the reason I was afraid of being in the middle of the street is that I am afraid of dogs. So, somehow, I was thinking, or at least hoping, that Jesus would keep me from the dogs. And, as I found out in the morning, I was right! In the morning I walked down the hill at the other side and saw a display of 10 commandments and next to it a note about the rules on the "sacred side" that included "no dogs are allowed". But you see, I didn't know about that note, yet I trusted Jesus to keep me from the dogs and I was right. Just like I didn't know about the crosses up until I got on the top, yet I was thinking of Matt 24:16 and was right.

In any case, while I was at the top, I looked up "crosses mountain los lunas" and found out this site http://coloradoguy.com/tome-hill/newmexico.htm So thats where I have been -- except that I didn't know that place exists until I got there.

I’m glad you’ve found contentment.

Something OP might appreciate, Akiana Kramarik's story behind her painting of Jesus. To give a hint - she's something of a modern Boehme or Swedenborg without trying and if I remember correctly she outlines some of her childhood experiences and the path to the painting's completion.