Devotion: Mountaintop Experiences
Mountaintop Experiences
Please read the scripture from the weekend: Matthew 28:16-20
If you’ve had a day or even a few minutes that you wished would last forever, you’ve had a mountaintop experience. You’re filled with joy and grounded in the moment, not worried about the past or the future, only aware that this time is both rare and wonderful.
These experiences are gifts from God, whether they result from a goal achieved – a team championship, a graduation, a wedding day filled with family and friends, the birth of a child – or they come upon you suddenly: a scene of such beauty in the natural world that your heart aches with joy and you can’t help but to give praise to God at that moment. Or learning that some small kindness of yours has meant the world to another and you are honored and thankful that God has used you for his good purpose.
The disciples were truly on a mountaintop when Jesus gives them the Great Commission in Matthew 28. Earlier in Matthew, Peter, James and John are with Jesus on a high mountain when he is transfigured, Moses and Elijah appear, and God speaks his love and approval of Jesus. Peter offers to put up three tents so these amazing moments can be prolonged. He wants more of this special time. But Jesus leads his friends down the mountain to resume his work and theirs.
We are not meant to live on the mountaintop. Jesus’ command in the Great Commission is given to us, too: make disciples, lead them to faith and baptism, teach them to know and love and obey God, show the same love and compassion as Jesus. Our mountaintop experiences reveal God and they are meant to change us and equip us to fulfill what God has commanded.
And Jesus goes with us. Always. “Even to the end of the age,” he has promised. Even when we fail, when our task seems too big, when we are afraid – Jesus shows up. We are never alone.
And with the power of memory, we can return to the mountaintop to experience again the joy of those moments, the goodness of God, the confidence that we can indeed do God’s work in the world.
God of all that is wonderful, thank you for those times we experience your majesty and your goodness and your presence so profoundly. Keep them fresh in our memories as we seek to serve you in our daily lives. Amen.
Written by Cheryl Stubbendieck
Cheryl Stubbendieck is a member of Sheridan’s Devotion Writing Team. She was the public relations department head for Nebraska Farm Bureau before retiring in 2012. She and her husband Jim are the editors of a quarterly journal about antique side-by-side shotguns and Cheryl is the co-leader of Sheridan’s new Card Makers group. Their family includes their son Aaron and his wife Chaitra of San Francisco, CA, and their son Reed of Madison, WI.