Time for Transfiguration
- Matthew 17:1-9
Have you ever noticed how the deepest emotional encounters, the deepest instances of sharing love between people, usually occur when we’re standing face to face. In that moment, we see only each other. There’s nothing else. That moment holds everything.
Whether it comes between parent and child, husband and wife, or redeemer and redeemed, we become a part of something much bigger than ourselves. There’s more going on than what physical eyes can see or understand. We’ve entered a mystery that can’t be defined or discussed. Only experienced.
There are moments like that in every life. Lovers gazing at each other see more than their beloved. They face the mystery of love. And when you see your child or grandchild for the first time, you see more than just a baby. You come face to face with the mystery of life. Or what about the days and nights spent at the bedside of a loved one; watching and waiting for them to be raised up into new life. We sit there, quietly, face to face with the mystery of death.
These are all moments of transfiguration. Each one of them is distinct, unique, and unrepeatable. Yet somehow, they’re all the same. Each one is so authentic, so real, they glow with the light of God’s presence. They’re moments of pure grace. We can’t make them happen. We can only be there to experience them when they do.
In that moment, everything around us seems to fall away. There are no distractions. It’s a moment of complete presence, attention, and union. It’s a moment when we come face to face with someone else, with ourselves, and ultimately with God.
As we stand there in that place, it contains the entire world and all of life. Nothing else matters. When God meets us face to face, he takes the darkness from our life and transfigures it so His light will shine.
Jesus was transfigured on that mountaintop, but so were Peter, James, and John. Peter wrote of it later, saying, “We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For He received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to Him from the Majestic Glory, saying, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased.’ We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with Him on the sacred mountain.”
Jesus said, “I Am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” There is only one way to the Transfiguration, and that’s by accepting Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior and meeting him face to face.
So, climb that mountain and be filled with the glory of God. It’s time for transfiguration.