Jeremy L. Berg

This Advent we have been contemplating how the magic and mystery of the Transfiguration story resembles the awe and wonder of the manger where God’s glory first appeared in human flesh. We have followed a fictional character named Amanda on a holiday retreat in a cozy log cabin on Mount Mystic where she has had her own mysterious encounters with God. In this final journal entry of Amanda, she prepares to leave the magic of Mount Mystic to return to her everyday life. Hopefully she will bring home with her the greatest gift of all. This piece supplemented my Christmas Eve sermon examining the Star of Bethlehem alongside the morning star rising in our hearts Peter wrote about in his second letter as he remembered that wonderful time on the sacred mountain. Enjoy!

Amanda’s Journal: Final Entry

Peter said to him, “Master, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” (He did not know what he was saying.) –LUKE 9:33

Last night as I drifted off to sleep, my eyes beheld a uniquely bright start through the skylight window above my bed. Above my deep and dreamless sleep, a not-so-silent Star went by and was waiting for me this morning to teach me one more lesson before heading home this Christmas Eve.

This morning I awoke to to a blanket of fresh powdery snow covering Mount Mystic, the morning sun shimmering off the snow-covered pines. There’s a special quality to Christmas snow. It seems somehow whiter and purer than ordinary snow. I like to think of Christmas snowflakes as myriads of mini-evangelists, each sent directly from heaven with the Isaiah’s message of grace and a clean slate. God said through Isaiah, “Though your sins are like scarlet, I will make them as white as snow” (Isaiah 1:18). Snow covers all the tracks of my past missteps, and provides a new canvas to begin making new and more God-honoring trails. As I prepared to return to my family and life down in the valley, I was hoping to leave today with my own fresh start. 

After so many powerful moments with God on this sacred mountain, I started thinking thinking, “What if we got own cabin here Mount Mystic and started a new life together up here?” We could start a little retreat center up here, with three cabins: Eli and Sophia’s, our cabin, and a third to rent out. As I started to search for properties online, I suddenly remembered Uncle Eli’s original note and his warning: 

“When your time comes to an end on the mountain, you will likely want to extend it. You mustn’t. Your life awaits you back in the flatlands.”

I guess it’s natural to want a life-changing trip to last forever, and a kind of sadness—even dread—settles in when your mind starts to wander back to the real life struggles and rat-race chaos awaiting you back home. As much as we wish we could prolong retreats and vacations, eventually we need to return home to the life and tasks God has given to us. 

But what if I could bring some of the magic and wonder of Mount Mystic back into the valley with me? What if the dazzling Light and the mysterious Cloud could be portable, and not restricted to special weekends on this or that exclusive mountain? What if the Voice from the cloud that so quickly evaporated my fears and led me through the fog to the light of Eli’s porch, could be with me always—like the voice on my Google Maps app? 

My thoughts about navigation devices brought me back to the Christmas story and the beloved wise men who followed the bright morning Star out of their darkness and to the feet of the King of Kings. I chuckled and said to God, “I wish you would give me a magic star to guide me!” Now, just as I said this, a blinding light appeared outside the front window. Its rays beamed down and conjoined to form a kind of luminous arrow pointing directly at the mailbox. Considering all the strange things I had experienced already on Mt. Mystic, I figured this probably wasn’t a coincidence. I put on my boots and went to the mailbox, bracing for another surprise. 

Inside the mailbox was a letter from my Aunt Sophia in an ancient looking envelope with a real wax seal. Sophia doesn’t speak often, but when she does she is a gushing fountain of well-worn wisdom and deep spiritual insight. I ripped open her letter and began to read her perfect calligraphy: 

Dear Beloved,

Since time began, people have been seeking favor from the gods in high places. People think they must climb upward to enter into God’s presence. Uncle Eli and I have accommodated this belief in the past, bringing people onto the mountain to encounter the Majestic Glory here. But the great scandal of the ages is that the Son came down from the heights of Heaven to make God’s Shekinah glory available to people in the lowlands and flatlands, in the desolate deserts and the doldrum dreariness of daily life. 

Eli and I bring people up to Mount Mystic in hopes of sending them back down with Isaiah’s prophecy fulfilled in their lives. The Messiah came that first Christmas“to make straight in the desert a highway for our God” and through Christ “every valley shall be raised up and every mountain and hill made low…and the glory of the LORD will be revealed” in His loving face (see Isaiah 40:3-5). We know how tempting it is to want to limit God’s activity to this mystical mountain retreat, but the Son came to usher in a new kind of spirituality that moves beyond occasionally mountaintop moments. Remember His words and take them to heart today as you prepare to leave this holy mountain: 

“Believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor on the mountain in Jerusalem… A time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in Truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks” (John 4:21-23). 

Everything you have experienced on Mount Mystic can be yours back down in the valley. The light of his glory, the ancient story you inhabit, the Cloud of His Presence, and the Voice of truth—all of these can take up residence within your heart! You have been seeking a momentary encounter with God in mountain top temple, when Heaven’s Life has chosen to take up permanent residence in your heart as His new true temple! 

So, tarry no more on this mountain! Open wide your heart this Christmas Eve and let Heaven’s Light flood every corner of your being. Don’t settle for following the Star of Bethlehem to a momentary encounter with the newborn King each Christmas Eve. Leave the manger and this mountain and let the Morning Star—Christ himself—rise ever higher, grow ever larger, and shine ever brighter in your heart! 

Love,

Aunt Sophia