When they opened their eyes, they saw only Jesus -Matthew 17:8 (CEV)

Jesus has just shocked his disciples by announcing his coming death.  Then he called the inner circle: Peter, James and John up to a mountain where they have this amazing vision of God (Matthew 17:1-9).

It is an oft repeated pattern in the Bible.  At critical times in the lives of leaders like Moses, Elijah, Jonah, Isaiah, Abraham, or Israel’s history God called someone apart—a burning bush, a mountain, by a brook, the belly of a whale. His word to Israel in that time of crisis as they wandered in the desert was, “Come up to the Lord,…Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up, and they saw the God of Israel.”  They saw God.  It was and is always the difference maker.

It doesn’t matter whether it’s when we need preparation for action/ministry or whether strength in the midst of our trials, When God wanted to take His people to new places, God has one answer.  It is simply to give us a vision of God’s self.  I don’t mean necessarily or even usually that God puts in an appearance.  It may be a word, a sight, but it is nevertheless a revealing of Himself.

In the midst of your pain of cancer, the devastation of a child’s waywardness, loss of a job, end of a marriage or senseless violence, God is not about providing answers that explain or make sense but offering himself.  Not what, but “whom,” I do believe.

We need a vision of God to keep our perspective but it means we need to find the “mountain” away from the noise, the busyness where we can meet Him.

Filed under: The Journey |