The sunrise on the transfiguration of Jesus is with me everyday, He is the bridegroom meeting the morning. When I look at the clouds in the sky, I imagine that the glory of the Lord is spilling out upon the earth, in just a glimpse of His Majesty:
The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
2 Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they reveal knowledge.
3 They have no speech, they use no words;
no sound is heard from them.
4 Yet their voice[b] goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world (Psalm 19).
There was a time when I could not feel the dawn
The end loomed on the horizon,
like water in the desert,
a mirage on an endless highway.
Although I was not raised in a Christian home, when I was a little girl, I used to visit churches in my neighborhood. On the campus near home, I used to stop in a little church and find a private moment with God.
My favorite little church in the world is The Chapel of Transfiguration.
The first time I was at the Chapel of Transfiguration in the Grand Tetons, I wrote a prayer on the pages of the guest book, “May I find the truth of who I am and why I am on the earth.” I was sixteen years old, and somehow I believed that my prayer would be answered, at the Chapel of Transfiguration.
Slowly but surely
the Lord began to unveil
the person who was hiding in stagnant shadows
gaps in memory,
afraid of the light
unraveling tangled phantoms
desperate for the truth, terrified.
When I think of Jesus and the transfiguration in Mathew 17:2, the son of God in all His Glory in heavenly realms yet clearly on the earth, I think of the Lord’s encounter with Moses and Elijah, together in time, remaining in eternity. When I think of the mountains of the Tetons, all the times I climbed those mountains hiking higher and higher toward the blue, somehow the air was clearer, the majestic view crystalline and pure, heavenly. There was no mistaking that there was G-d.
A vase of wild flowers on the alter at the Chapel of Transfiguration, I sensed The Presence. Moments like these were woven through my life wooing me to seek the face of the living God. Many, the Lord put in my path told me of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
There is a sunrise each and every day on the transfiguration of Jesus.
When I look at the clouds in the sky,
I imagine that the glory of the Lord is spilling out upon the earth,
There was a time I could not feel the dawn.
The Chapel of Transfiguration, is most beautiful in the early evening when the last rays of sunlight dance across the alter birthing hope for another day. Will I feel the arms of the dawn enfold me in love once again?
Oh,
Dawn please sing to me
love songs
that obscure the residue of despairing dreams.
Dawn, may I feel your sweet Blueness once again,
like soft warm downy feathers on my heart?
I will sing with the patriarchs and the prophets,
the saints of all time the song of eternal love, and wait for you.
In small moments, I deeply and profoundly realize once again that we have nothing more powerful or precious than the knowledge of Christ. But there was a longing in the sanctuary of my heart as I gazed out the window of the Chapel of Transfiguration reflecting the essence of something grand on the mountain: beckoning, inspiring hope.
The odor of sage soaked in midnight dew,
the slant of morning grey-blue across the horizon
whispering the wonder of life,
a new day enfolding me in peace;
His sweet presence rose within singing songs of deliverance
Born for such a time as this, with a divine blue-print at the conception of eternity, I fear less, Jesus is with me and so are the cloud of witnesses who know, who see, who dwell with Him, who were the forerunner’s of the race now passing to me the baton as I bow my knee to the Greatest Champion, the Lord of Hosts the King of Kings.
It is finished.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.… (Hebrews 12).
The mountain within our heart speaks of transfiguration in the new creature we are becoming in Christ, the new man/woman who is being transformed from glory to glory.
The journey through the Valley of the shadow of death
There was a time I could not feel the dawn
Scarred my awakening,
etching a recess where my ability to feel was buried in a tomb of terror.
I held the vision of my little chapel in the Tetons
before recognizing the voice my Good Shepherd;
“Come away, come away with Me.”
When there was no reason to hope that I would ever see the dawn again
The Lord rescued me,
the Lord hid me under the shadow of His wings,
the Lord is my defense,
the Lord is my shield,
the Lord is my beloved and my beloved is He.
The mountain within my heart speaks of transfiguration in the new creature I am becoming in Christ, the new woman transformed from glory to glory.
Now, looking out the window of the Chapel of Transfiguration on the heavens declaring His handiwork I imagine that all those in heaven, the patriarchs and the prophets who did not know the mystery, stand with me in the power, the awe, the wonder, the majesty, the beauty of The Lord.
One morning, I awoke to the song of a bird in Winter,
When birds do not sing.
The sky was painted soft pink,
Flamingo and blue
There she was
falling like raining love
so longed for, prayed for
the dawn sang to me in downy feathers,
Kissed my heart
Awakening me from a long dark despairing night
The Phantoms crawled away on their belly
The strangling rope around my being was severed
We were born for such a time as this, we have nothing to fear, we are not alone, Jesus is with us and so are all the cloud of witnesses who know, who see, who dwell with Him, who were the forerunner’s of the race now passing to us the baton to name the Greatest Champion: the Lord of Hosts the King of Kings!
I feel the dawn
in radiant love,
I feel the dawn.