A Merry Heart
While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved;* with him I am well pleased; listen to him!’ Matthew 7. 1 - 13
Today in the gospel, we hear the story of the Transfiguration when Jesus took Peter and James and John up on a mountain, "And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white." Peter, as only Peter could do, wanted to freeze frame the moment (he would have taken a selfie today!), but God spoke, as only God can do, and said "This is my...Beloved...Listen to him!"
Yesterday in the flat lands of Florida, surrounded by many disciples, Jesus brought us together to listen to God as we celebrated the life of a mighty disciple named Pokey, whose merry heart radiated a shining face that said to all who met her, "you are a beloved child of God." There were so many moments when I would like to have freeze framed events...the singing of Pokey's favorite hymns led by her grandsons and the beautiful great- grandchildren who frolicked around, the tears and the laughter elicited by the beautiful remembrances and readings. But there were no cameras, there was no way to make the scene permanent, as Peter wanted to do on that mountain. Instead, this band of disciples was reminded over and over again of the call to discipleship that Pokey heard many years ago, that gave her a merry heart for God and thus for all who crossed her path. And we were encouraged to go out into the world answering that call in memory of her.
It should not be taken lightly that Pokey (a name she was given in high school) "poked" along for many months with a heart that was barely beating, but what little it beat was strong enough to keep her alive perhaps because it was so full of the merry, so full of love, so full of the Transfigured Jesus.
Where will you see the Transfigured Jesus today, where will your heart be made merry with the love of God, and where will you be reminded that you are a beloved child of God? Listen and look, and be like Pokey...love with all your merry heart.
