Reflecting on the Word

By Dr. Karla J. Bellinger

I was shoveling the driveway. It was negative two degrees. The snow  was deep. The sky was blue. The late February sun was strong. Sparkles of brilliant white glistened in the snow where the sun shone upon it. It  was cold. It was very bright. I felt my eyes flooded with light. 

As I tossed that white stuff onto the snowbank, I thought about  the Transfiguration: Jesus bathed in light with a face shining like the  sun, his clothes dazzlingly white. Maybe it was the brilliance of the  snow or the brightness of the sun; maybe it was the contrast with so  many drab and dreary months of winter gray; I don’t know which  it was, but that image of “dazzling” grabbed hold of me. Dazzling— 

God is dazzling! 

I wonder, what did it feel like for Peter and James and John to be  so dazzled by Jesus at the Transfiguration that Matthew, Mark, and  Luke—all of the synoptic Gospels—tell this story? 

What does it feel like to be dazzled? Other than snow in the  sunshine, what kinds of dazzling brightness do we experience? I think  of the shimmer of sunshine dancing on water . . . a mountaintop  glowing with the pink and gold of a sunset . . . the twinkle of dew  sparkling on spider webs in the morning sun. Moments of beauty  flash into my mind. Tastes of God’s radiance shine through the  created world. 

The light of God enfolds us with the warmth of being beloved. As  Isaac was beloved, as Jesus was the Beloved, so we too are beloved.  To be beloved is dazzling. Radiant brilliance seeps into us.

Consider/Discuss 

  • How about you? Have you seen the snow sparkle, the sun shine on the  water, or the gold of the sunset? If not while shoveling snow, when and  where have you been dazzled by light . . . astounded . . . awed . . . ? 
  • If we want to experience God, how do we do that? This Lent, center  yourself in the Holy Spirit and take little sips of belovedness. Ponder the  dazzling brightness of God. For ten seconds, let your ribcage swell with  the joy of Jesus; for twenty seconds, savor a child-like wonder; for thirty  seconds, glory in the created world that you see in front of you. You are  wanted, cherished, cared for: that is belovedness. That is prayer. In small  sips, dwell, abide, and remain in the dazzling light of God. 

Living and Praying with the Word 

Jesus, there is much that we don’t know about your transfiguration.  Maybe you were always dazzling when you walked on this earth  and the Transfiguration was the only time the apostles saw it. As  children of light, we are surrounded by an ocean of your divine light.  Wherever we are, wherever we go, the Holy Spirit seeks to reveal  beauty and goodness and dazzling Presence to us. You know our  blindness. Show us your reality, Lord, and let us not shy away from  being dazzled by you.

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