Mountaintops Remembered

While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!” When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear. But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Get up and do not be afraid.” – Matthew 17:5-7

What was the most recent unexpected joy you encountered? Did you share that story with someone, who also got to share in that enjoyment?

Before Jesus led Peter, James, and John up to the mountain where they witnessed his startling transformation, the bright-shining glory accompanied by the appearance of Moses and Elijah, he told them the uncomfortable truth to come: that he would suffer and be killed before being raised. Not only that, but any who would call themselves a follower of Jesus must also learn to take up their own cross and embrace the loss that necessarily comes to one who follows the way.

What a gift, then, for these disciples to have been invited to witness Jesus’s transfiguration, one of the biblical scenes from whence we draw our contemporary ideas of a “mountaintop experience”. Something extra-ordinary, outside our usual expectations of how things go.

If there is a hard road ahead, Peter and James and John will have with them the nourishing memory of God’s beautiful nearness in the bright cloud that overshadowed them and the voice that proclaimed Jesus as beloved. Although the experience overwhelmed them, we are told Jesus touched them and said, “Get up and do not be afraid.”

Many of us can reach back in our own memories to recall times when we perceived the nearness of God, whether in bright beauty, an assurance of love, or the touch and connectedness that came in a time of grief or fear. Among those may be “mountaintop” occasions, but they are just as likely to be minor, everyday experiences. In fact, they may be even smaller than that – simple moments, insights, delights, or satisfactions that we receive and recognize in gratitude. 

I wonder how we might invite those moments to continue to connect us to God’s transforming power, known to us as love. Just as we can’t help smiling when we recount an amusing story, letting these memories and experiences of God’s goodness return to our consciousness can strengthen our spirits and our readiness to trust God.

There is no shortage of difficult news to catch up on, no shortage of uncertainty to preoccupy our thoughts. And yet as a people who set our hope on Christ, we need to call forth from one another and from ourselves our experiences of God and God’s goodness, from the mundane to the magnificent. We too will take up our cross to follow in Jesus’s way. Having recognized and savored God’s nearness in the day to day, we’ll be ready to recognize God’s presence even when facing hard things.   

When you see me next, tell me: what recent, unexpected joy is still making you smile?  

Peace, Ann +