Hi everyone,

So every month my extended family meet up at my mom’s house for dinner and to celebrate whoever’s birthdays are happening in that month. I often enjoy these as it’s a way for my siblings and I to keep in touch and up to date on each other’s lives and stuff. Also I always feel it’s good for us to spend time with my mom.

But I’ll be darned if they don’t say the same thing every month. Usually around our younger kids, and how much they’ve grown since the last month. Every. Time.

It’s gotten to the point where we’re standing back to back and comparing if the kids are taller than their parents and uncles and aunts (well not so much the aunts as we’ve been blessed with 5’3″ being the tallest female in our family). The funny thing is, I remember doing the same exact thing when I was growing up with my uncles.

Some things just don’t ever change, I guess. Even when it’s talking about literal change. It is inevitable though, isn’t it? Change, I mean, will happen. How we react, adapt, and learn from it is up to us.

Here are the readings for next week:
Exodus 24:12-18
Psalm 2
2 Peter 1:16-21
Matthew 17:1-9
And a video of them being read:

As much as we’d like to keep things the same, they just keep changing. For the longest time, I’ve been the tallest in my family (which isn’t to say that I’m tall, but just that my family is short). And now I have a nephew and a son (two different people) who are coming dangerously close to surpassing my height, if not already.

So what do I do? Nothing, really. But I can embrace the fact that we change. Not just physically, but mentally and emotionally as well. Spiritually, even.

In this week’s gospel we hear of Jesus being transfigured, which is appropriate for Transfiguration Sunday. The text tells us that he is changed suddenly but also momentarily. But I have a feeling this change affected those disciples who were present for a lot longer.

Because the thing is, we aren’t called to stay the same. And we’re not called to change for the sake of change. But we are called to learn, grow, and adapt to the changing world with lessons that we have from Jesus.

We might not be transfigured in the same way that Jesus was, but we will change as we journey through this life. But even in that change, who we are to God in God’s family doesn’t change, and God’s welcome and forgiveness doesn’t either. It is inevitable, I guess.

Thanks be to God! Have a great week, everyone!