The Transfiguration

At last
we had Jesus to ourselves,
probably for a whole day.
He had said
He would take us away
by ourselves
and here we were,
half way up the mountain;
space to breathe;
time to talk;
and did we want to talk!
So many questions
were racing through our minds.
Who…
What…
When…
Recently we had had
such strange conversations.
Jesus had asked us
who people thought He was.
Elijah.
Jeremiah.
John the Baptist.
Then Peter had said,
“You are the Christ!”
Wow!
I mean…
Well…
It sounded frightening
when you actually said it.
After that
Jesus had talked
about being killed.
It didn’t make sense,
but only Peter
spoke up to challenge Jesus.
And he got told off for it.
But it got worse.
Jesus began to talk about
taking up a cross.
Surely He couldn’t
really mean it.
Not a cross.
Then,
when we were totally confused,
He said
some of us would not die
before we saw
the Kingdom of God come.
Well, I ask you,
wouldn’t you have had
questions!

So this was our chance,
but where should we start?

All too soon we had reached the top
of the mountain.
Jesus
was ahead of us
and
as we watched
something
absolutely
amazing
happened.
He shone!
I know it sounds silly
but I can’t think of any other words
to describe it.
And you certainly won’t believe
what happened next.
There
with Jesus
were Moses
and Elijah.
We just stood there
speechless.
Well, we did,
but Peter,
who was never lost for words,
started babbling
about building
shelters.
What for I can’t imagine
and I don’t suppose he could either.

He had hardly finished speaking
when
the sky became darker
and cloud
enveloped us.
You would imagine
that we couldn’t have got
more afraid,
but you would be wrong.
A voice
came to us
from the cloud
so clear,
“This is My Son, whom I love.
Listen to Him.”

Then it was gone,
and everything was as before.
Well, not everything.
Around us
things looked the same.
Jesus
looked the same.
But what about us?
Talk about mind-blowing…

As we came down the mountain
the numbness
wore off
and our minds
began to function again.
As we thought about
what we had just witnessed
the questions came
thick and fast.
Who is this Man?
Why can’t we tell anyone?
What does He mean – raised from the dead?
When will He explain it all?…

We will listen to Him
and, maybe,
some day,
we will understand.

© Kathleen Wilks