
Reflection 2: God is there in the light...and in the dark!

Keeping company with Jesus was not always safe for Peter, James and John. Nor will it be for us. The trip up the mountain where Jesus is transfigured is an experience of bright light, but also one of dark shadow. We can identify with what the disciples experience if we think about our own times with God in prayer.
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There are the bright, dazzling experiences when everything seems to fall into place and we feel God's presence and love enveloping us.
Perhaps its the joy of a wedding day, the birth of a child, the perfect day with a loved one, the sense of solidarity with others who care about us or the glimpses of God we get on a pilgrimage or sacred journey. Though rare and precious, these moments are real. We cherish them and never want them to end.
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However, after Jesus is transfigured there is a time of shadow or cloud that darkens the scene on the mountain. Times come for all of us when we feel alone, think God has forgotten us or question if God exists at all. Slapped in the face by rejection, betrayed by ones we trusted, watching a loved one suffer or gripped by the grief that loss hurls our way - all these things can leave us in the dark. We fear and dread such moments.
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God does not just reassure us from a distance that he is with us at all times. Instead he comes to us in the person of Jesus to fill with his very presence both the times of light and darkness.
"I never forget you my people - I have carved you upon the palm of my hand."