So I wonder if that night, when he was alone, praying in the shadows of Gethsemane, Jesus remembered this psalm by someone who’d also found themselves lost in the valley of the shadow of death.  

This Transfiguration Sunday, it’s the disciples’ journey up and down the mountain that caught my attention. Perhaps like the disciples’ hike, perhaps like your own physical or metaphorical hiking, my own treks up mountains and down canyons have taught me some lessons about life and faith:

Our faith calls us to encounter the adult Jesus, not just the child. The grown-up Jesus who told stories that challenged people to think about God, themselves, and this world in new ways.

Given his time and culture, it’s doubtful that Isaiah had ever seen a birth either. Yet, he knew that new life seldom comes without hard labor and struggle.