We Interrupt this Program

by Billy Williams

Matthew 17:4 (MSG)
Peter broke in, "Master, this is a great moment! What would you think if I built three memorials here on the mountain—one for you, one for Moses, one for Elijah?"

This is so me; I get caught up in what I think I should be doing that I almost miss the moment as it happens, interrupting God before He can complete the thought. I (much like Peter) am a doer. I tend to rush ahead and put my own plan into action to show what God has done. Was it wrong that Peter wanted to build a memorial to what he was seeing happen so that others could know and remember what took place?

The story here is not that Peter’s intentions were wrong -- the story is that we need to see what God is doing before we rush out and start a pile of stones. Always, in the Old Testament, when God did a great thing they would make a memorial or build an altar. But here God was doing a new thing. Verse 5 says God then interrupted Peter: “While he was going on like this, babbling, a light-radiant cloud enveloped them, and sounding from deep in the cloud a voice: ‘This is my Son, marked by my love, focus of my delight. Listen to him.’” What Peter and the other disciples almost missed completely was an intimate moment between God the Father and God the Son, with a few close friends thrown in.





God, teach me patience. Keep me from being busy piling rocks while missing the true moment you wanted to share with me. Open my eyes to Jesus, your delight, and teach me to listen to Him.