You can’t put God in a boxBy Revd David Burgess
What do you do if you encounter God in a special way?
The disciples Peter, James and John had just such a meeting in the Christian Gospels; you may know it as the story of the Transfiguration. Jesus took the three of them with him up to the top of a hill to pray – and their experience was unique. They saw Jesus’s appearance transform into dazzling whiteness; they saw Moses and Elijah appear and talk to Jesus about his impending death; then they heard the voice of God himself addressing them.
We won’t, I assume, ever have an encounter quite like this, but ‘mountain top’ spiritual experiences aren’t uncommon. How do we handle them? There are many things which we can draw from this story, but one important lesson is this: don’t put God in a box.
When a momentous event happens we want to commemorate it in some way – it’s a human thing to do – but it might not be what God wants. In this story, Peter joins the chattering classes – he wants to talk it through, to analyse, to control, to make his mark on the events. “Let’s put up three shelters; one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah,” he blurts out. But the Gospel writers put Peter in his place – “He didn’t know what he was saying” – and God does the same – “This is my Son; listen to him.”
In Peter’s defence, he was honest enough to admit his failings. The tradition is that this episode is one of many handed down straight from Peter to the Gospel writers, and he knew that he’d got it wrong. He learned from his mistakes – he certainly made enough of them – and he became the rock on which Jesus was to build his church. What he needed to learn here was that the Transfiguration wasn’t about him, that he wasn’t in control, and that his role was simply to wait on God.
Sometimes it’s better to respond to God in silence, to allow him a word in edgeways. When we go through life with the attitude that we know better we run the risk of thinking we know better than God.
Listen to God; wait upon him; don’t put him in a box. If we avoid that trap, if we allow him to reveal himself to us, then our mountain top experiences are enhanced and the low points which inevitably follow are easier to deal with.
Let God speak; don’t interrupt him or try to control or manipulate him. As with the disciples, you might not understand what’s going on between you and him at that particular moment in time; but what’s really important to know is that God is with us in the highs and the lows, and on that we really can trust and depend.