Today we celebrate THIS... the Transfiguration. Basically Jesus became glowing with His own awesomeness and Moses and Elijah (representing the Law and the Prophets) came to chat with Him. This experience revealed to his three closest apostles that HE was the fulfillment of the law and the prophets and that He was exactly who has had been saying He was. Actually the Voice of God told them, too, when it boomed from a cloud: "This IS my beloved Son. Listen to Him" which is why I like this image best- those apostles are FREAKING OUT!! They are literally blown away by how AWESOME and GLORIOUS their friend/savior/companion really is. The reality is almost too much to handle. Why does He do this? He's giving them strength- a mountain-top (a great post by my sweet friend at Humble Handmaid) experience to empower them to undergo what happens after this, which is, of course, Jesus' suffering and crucifixion in order that they might also experience the Resurrection.
So my prayer today has been that God will reveal His glory to me and to David, that we may have hope to help us to continue doing what we're doing. So what happened at Mass? After communion I prayed that same prayer - Lord show me your glory that I may have courage to do what you call me to do- and do you know what he told me? "The glory is in the ordinary" WHAT?!?! Seriously. Womp Womp. I am not to proud to admit that I was a bit disappointed in hearing this. If we're honest with ourselves, we can say that we desperately want (and expect) that if we ask God to reveal Himself to us that He will come in all that awesomeness that Peter, James, and John were allowed to see. And because this doesn't actually happen most of the time, we're pretty disappointed with God...
So what do I do? What does God mean for me to experience this Feast Day? I know He doesn't mean for me to feel disappointment. So I'm thinking about exactly what the "ordinary" looks like... I call to mind what I received from the retreat (Focus on what God IS doing and not on what He is NOT doing), and I am looking around at the ordinary and finding glory in it...
We are living in a 4800 sq ft home (granted it needs COMPLETE renovation, has bees and a broken dishwasher) that is large enough to be worthy of both inside and outside activities for my kids. We get our Daddy home at 4:30 every day because he walks home from work in 5 minutes. Judging by the constant queasiness, we are in fact blessed with another precious life that is helping our family to grow to the size that we've hoped for (a BIG size). The dishwasher is broken, and in washing each child's/husband's dish individually I am amazed at how it evokes a DEEP appreciation for that person's life ("Aw, Jacob's oatmeal bits, Micah's banana pieces on his bottle, David's sopping up every bit of everything on his plate that I barely need to wash it). We are minutes from more parks and libraries than I can count. All our home school stuff is somewhere in storage and I cannot locate it, but I am so pumped to get started early so that by march (baby time) we will be through and can love on our newest addition. There isn't a morning that David doesn't wake up with a huge smile on his face just to see me (oh and it's a pretty sight, indeed). I have time pretty much every afternoon where all four are sleeping or at least horizontal, allowing me to have to time to pray, sleep, cook, chat, or blog.
Ordinary... but truly Glorious... Glordinary? New word. Write it Down.
Best and most of all, I see that our children GLORY in their ordinary days. I don't see them waking up with anything but TOTAL excitement that another day has arrived. I want to be like that. They don't even know what the day holds are what day it even is, but they love to be US- our family. That is glory and awesomeness to them. "Would that you would be come like little children {to enter} the kingdom of God"...
This realization of God's glory in the ordinary (His Glordinary :) is what can empower me (US) to do what we have been called to do. How often do we say/hear that the world is going somewhere in a hand basket? What can we do about it beside sit back and say "oh, what a shame" ? We can have Glordinary! We can live day in and day out in the monotony- and LOVE IT! This will change hearts, because the first hearts it can change is MINE! Then it flows to my kids and their precious hearts will change others, and so on and so on. That is the power of the Transfiguration! That is Glordinary power!! I am finding mine...
"And He lead them up onto a high mountain, and there He was transfigured before them..."
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