We all crave them – those mountaintop moments. But they are hard to come by, far and few between. Still, we seek them out. We go in search of them. Maybe that’s why there are so many actual mountain climbers. What better way to find that perfect mountaintop moment, than to literally go to the top of the mountain? Only problem is, you can’t stay up there forever. At some point you have to come back down the mountain. You return to what you left behind – reality, the real life day to day. But sometimes, if you’re really lucky, the memory stays with you. And maybe, just maybe, you have the pictures to prove it – that is to prove that you did indeed, once upon a time, experience that mountaintop moment.

There are many mountaintop moments in life that come to us wherever we are, we do not need to be on an actual mountaintop to experience them. And I should add, just being physically present on the top of a mountain does not guarantee that the mountaintop moment will materialize. These are elusive moments that cannot be manufactured or summoned upon demand. They are unexpected gifts which present themselves at their own will and whim. They come and they go of their own accord Recently however, I had a mountaintop moment while actually on a mountaintop. (actually I had several of them, moments strung together making something quite beautiful) Now I confess – I didn’t climb the mountain. There was a road. (a long and winding road which took us to our destination)

The occasion that took me to the top of the mountain was my son’s wedding. Marriage is one of those milemarkers in life that should be properly acknowledged and celebrated. And so it was. In the presence of family and friends, my son and his fiance said their vows on the top of the mountain, with the sky and surrounding hills as a backdrop. Let the mountaintop moments reign down! And reign down they did.

Mountaintop moments are meant to be experienced in the present. They are those moments when time stands still and our journey pauses to allow us to commemorate or to celebrate something special. These moments stop us in our tracks – overwhelming and blindsiding us with revelations that are the unique province of mountaintop moments to bestow. In these moments, present, past and future merge, all sharing the same space for the briefest of time and yet the longest of lasting impressions.

As the bride and groom stood before us, I was seeing the little boy he had been, the young man he had become and the man he would yet grow into with all the possibilities and promise that vision holds. I have no doubt the bride’s family was having a similar simultaneous vision of her past, present and future as well. Mountaintops lend themselves to this clarity of vision and thought – they provide a new and different perspective, given the view is quite different from the mountaintop than it is from anywhere else.

It was on a mountaintop that Moses met with God and it was on a mountaintop that Jesus was transfigured as Peter, James and John looked on.

“After six days Jesus took with Him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. There He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light.” (Matthew 17:1-2)

Truly a mountaintop moment. Mountaintop moments change us. Consider Moses after his mountaintop meeting with God.

“When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the Lord.” (Exodus 34:29)

Yes, mountaintop moments with God, who made the mountains, are truly transforming. I leave the mountaintop altered after spending time there in the presence of my Creator. My son and his fiance experienced transformation while we, their witnesses, watched and shared in their mountaintop moment. They went up the mountain single individuals. They came down the mountain as husband and wife. Changed in those moments on the mountaintop, the two became one before our eyes, pledging their lives to each other. We were each one privileged to share in that moment – that brief space in time, where everything and everyone comes together and in that moment, that one shining mountaintop moment, all things are possible.

Because in a mountaintop moment reside all joy, all comfort, all peace, all faith and all hope. And through it all runs love.

“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13:13)

sincerely, Grace Day