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PRAYER FOR THE WEEK
Jesus, help me take a serious look at weird experiences before I decide whether they're true. Amen!

Jesus, Peter, James and John went up a mountain. All of a sudden, Jesus' face and clothes got as bright as the sun! Moses and Elijah, famous prophets, appeared with Jesus, and God's voice said, "This is my beloved Son. Listen to Him." Then the light went away and the disciples were alone with Jesus. "Don't talk about this until I'm in heaven," Jesus told them.

Weird things happen in this world. Sometimes, you experience something so strange, you wonder afterward, "Did that really happen?" You start second-guessing yourself, wondering if you really did see a man who was seven feet tall or hear a ghostly noise at night.

Not everything weird is real, of course. You'll probably find out that you heard an owl, not a ghost! But strange experiences keep you guessing - like the one in this week's Gospel (Matthew 17:1-9).

The Gospel story is definitely weird: Jesus and three close friends go off by themselves, and Jesus is suddenly completely changed! We call this moment the "transfiguration." Jesus gets as bright as the sun; famous people from the Bible appear with Him; and God the Father's voice speaks from heaven - and then everything goes back to normal.

If that happened to you, it would certainly leave you wondering whether you'd had a dream or bumped your head or something. It seems too weird to be true.

A lot of weird things you experience are just your imagination at work. In the Gospel story, though, all three Apostles experienced the same thing, and their friend Jesus confirmed that it really happened: They had gotten a small glimpse of what He looked like as God.

Every once in a while, a weird experience is real. The Apostles' experience was a strange-but-true moment that would change their lives, and help them believe in Jesus forever![[In-content Ad]]

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