Next week’s lessons are about transfiguration – about the transformation of a person’s appearance. These days there are television programs about that – about giving someone’s exterior appearance an “extreme makeover.” But once the make-up artists go home, once the nice new clothes go into the laundry, once the expensive haircut grows out, the person who was made-over suddenly looks much like he or she did before.
When are people really changed? What have you seen change people in a fundamental way? I spoke recently with a woman whose husband is an alcoholic. She was recently diagnosed with a serious cancer, and her husband also suffered medical problems. And for the last 2 months he has stopped drinking. That, by itself, is a miracle. But this is greater. She says he is a new person. He is like the man she knew when they were dating. “I’ve got my boyfriend back!” she said.
A time of sickness can work changes in us. Any time of spiritual darkness can work even greater changes in us, causing us to depend upon our Lord in our weakness. If our pride is scraped away, and we are forced to see the truth about ourselves, and allowed to see God’s patience, love, and faithfulness – then how might others see an extreme makeover in us?
Moses was radiant. But how or where do you radiate the results of God’s love for you when he held you up through hard times?
Prayer: Father, I pray that you change me. I know it might be painful. Even a plastic surgery that changes only the skin might hurt, and I’m asking you to change me from the inside out. But let the joy of that change go far beyond a radiant surface. Let your love shine from me to change others too. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
(Pray for people in dark times today, that they may radiate light all the brighter in darkness.)