Based on Luke 9:28-36

So, where are you going? Where is your next duty station?

These are questions I’ve been asking our military members as the PCS season is fast approaching. Are you looking to fill a billet, a slot, and hoping and praying that for one of your top five billets your name is on the top of that list? Where would you like to land? I know some of you would like to fill a billet that advances your career, or perhaps puts you closer to family or friends, or takes you to a part of the country or the world you’ve never been to before. Maybe it’s your final duty station. You’ve already begun working on that paperwork as you transition out of military life to civilian life.

For some, you know exactly how the next few years will play out for you. It’s been mapped out. For others, you’re not so sure. Wouldn’t it be would helpful if the all-knowing God stood you on top of a mountain and pointed down to a path coming down that mountain, and on that path God has laid out everything for you: every PCS, every deployment, every redeployment, every school, every training, all of the difficult times that lie ahead so you can prepare for them, and every joy so that you can rejoice in them? Wouldn’t that be nice?

Well, he does. Walk with me up a mountain with three of Jesus’ friends: John and his brother James, and their buddy Peter. Follow Jesus up a mountain. Watch and listen as he prays. And then look! See him transfigured before your eyes. The lowly, ordinary Jesus, the Jew from Nazareth, is suddenly transfigured. You can read this story in Luke chapter 9. There Luke describes Jesus’ clothes as they became bright as a flash of lightning. His face shines like the sun. It is so glorious that the disciples grovel in the dirt, sinners who realize they are standing in the presence of the divine.

Jesus is transformed into something glorious, like God . . . because that’s who he was and is: God in the flesh. But here on the mountain he pulls back the curtain on his humanity and allows his disciples and us, through their eyewitness testimony, to see Jesus for who he is: God for us. While the disciples are shielding their eyes, two prophets from Old Testament appear with Jesus—Moses and Elijah—and they are chatting with Jesus. Luke tells us they are talking “about [Jesus’] departure, which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem” (Luke 9:31). They discussed his departure . . . his death on the cross and his glorious resurrection from the dead and his glorious ascension back into heaven.

The all-knowing God stands us on the mountain and points to a path leading down the mountain. He points to all of the hardships and joys of your life and shows you their glorious end: a grave—your grave—a vacated grave. The end includes a glorious resurrection, a glorious eternity in heaven, where you will behold the face of Jesus in all of its glory without shielding your eyes, without groveling in the dirt, because you are covered in his glory, in his righteousness. This is the big picture. God reveals it to you.

No matter what this PCS season brings, no matter which billet you fill, no matter which duty station you get or don’t get, no matter the length of the deployment cycle, no matter where you land after your discharge from the military—God has shown you the big picture. Jesus is still God. Jesus is still glorious. Jesus knows the path you will walk. Jesus knows the hardships and the joys you will experience. Jesus knows the glorious end of your life’s journey. It ends the same way it begins. With him.

See the big picture. Know that Jesus is your big picture.

Prayer:
Lord God, before the suffering and death of your one and only Son, you revealed his glory on the holy mountain. Grant that we who bear his cross on earth may behold by faith the light of his heavenly glory and so be changed into his likeness.

This week, Lord, we celebrate with both the Navy Reserve and Seabees, who celebrate birthdays this week. Since 1915 you have provided faithful men and women who are willing to serve in their civilian vocations and train as sailors at the same time, ready and willing to deploy wherever their country needs them.

For the past 83 years through our Seabees, you have provided miles of bridges, roads, bases, and airfields around the world as our Navy’s construction force. Continue to bless our nation’s defense forces through the men and women who serve in our Navy. Lord Jesus, in your name we pray. Amen.