When my son was younger, his favorite toys were Transformers. There was more to these innocent-looking little toys than met the eye. Often packaged as trucks or cars, a few deft movements would transform them into grotesque monsters or powerful super heroes. Whenever my son would receive a new Transformer, he would sit mesmerized by it, moving each movable part until a new figure emerged. A Transformer was really a toy within a toy.

There was more than met the eye with Jesus, too, as Peter, James, and John discovered.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"A teacher in a Sunday school class was reading the story of the Transfiguration. As she read, she noticed one little boy seemed confused.

When she was finished she asked him, "Johnny, why don't you tell us where Jesus was in this story. He replied, "Oh, he was on a mountain."

"Yes, that's right; said the teacher, "Do you remember why he was up there?"

Johnny answered with a confused look, "I guess that's where his arithmetic class was held ."

" The teacher looked at him and wondered what he meant. "What do you mean, arithmetic class?"

"Well" Johnny replied, "The Bible said, 'Jesus went up on the mountain and there he BEGAN TO FIGURE " '

The teacher smiled and said,"The scripture said, He went into the mountain and there He BECAME TRANSFIGURED NOT BEGAN TO FIGURE. "

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Might we all be like the woman in the following story from the late Pastor Valbracht's book Exit Interstate O "I remember the unchurched husband of a woman in a former parish. He never attended church, but she was always there. She was a quiet, retiring woman, who took part in everything, but always in the background, always silently. Oh, there were many people who had talked to her husband urging church attendance and church membership. One day he finally came and eventually he united with the congregation. Some time later I had the occasion to ask him why? Who said the right thing to him? Who had finally convinced him? 'No one, 'he answered.' It was my wife. she never said anything, but, I guess, over the years, she kind of lived me into it."'

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A little boy who was blind was taken to, a famous specialist who said that an operation might give him sight. After the delicate operation was over, the little fellow opened his eyes and looked at his mother. But he did not know her, knowing only the sound of her voice and the touch of her hand. But when the mother spoke his name, his little arms went around her neck and he said, "Mother, is this heaven?" It was at least a foretaste of heaven. We have heard God's voice in his Word and felt the loving touch of his guiding hand. But when we see him face to face, it will truly be heaven.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A pastor says in the Augsburg sermon series the following ''But not until God stepped into his own creation as a man, not until he came to be our brother, not until he suffered for the guilt of sin and died by crucifixion not until he broke the death grip and destroyed the force of hell had He revealed himself in all his love, compassion, mercy, pity, grace that satisfies our desperate need. I see and each of us makes this his own confession. I see my Lord not as a man who points the way, but as the God who is the Way, not as a good teacher who dropped in to teach some truth, but as the God who is the Truth not as revealer of a better life, but as the "God who is the life."