“Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them.” Mark 9:2-3

On the mount of Transfiguration, Peter, James & John saw with their own eyes the mystery of God being made known. Mountain top experiences give us clarity about who God is, without the haze.   We look up at the sky on a clear night and wonder about the universe. There is a sense of awe that we are part of something grander than ourselves. We realize that the cosmos is larger, broader, higher than our own mind and spirit can fully comprehend.

The year I was a senior in high school, one of my sister’s newborn twins died just a few days after birth. The unexpected loss was a painful message of the fragility of life. I remember coming home from the funeral, with all the questions we have in moments of loss, wondering how this beautiful baby could have died. During the funeral lunch, I stepped outside to be by myself. Looking out over the lake, I was asking again the questions of my heart, when light broke through the clouds. Sun rippled on the water. In that instant there was a sense that in some way, I did not understand, God was present loving us all in the loss and the heartache of that moment. There was an awareness my little niece was all right . . . It was a transcendent moment . . . a mystical moment.

Every now and then, we catch a glimpse and see with utter certainty a vision of  the divine.  We are touched by awe and a sense, that God who loves us, will lead us through the haze, and into a place where we will one day fully understand.