Labradorite

 I welcome spiritual transformation into my life.

     Within stones of grey and brown and black, there is a flash of yellow and azure and green and purple; like a shiny green beetle, or a gleaming silken sheet of gold, or the sheen of rain on violet flowers, or the fluttering shine of a blue morpho's wings. Labradorite can look ordinary, but from the right angle it glows as though the aurora borealis is inside - in fact, some Eskimo tribes have a myth about a warrior finding the lights trapped in stones. He broke open the rocks with his spear, and the aurora borealis was set free to dance in the skies, but a small part remained in the stones which became labradorite. 

     Like the shifting emerald and gold waves in this stone, changing and transforming with the slightest change of angle, we can be spiritually transfigured, further and further into holiness and grace. The world around us is changing and rotting, and every day we near its end, and soon it will pass away and be replaced with a new earth with no evil, and the heavens as they stand will be transfigured into a new heaven even more glorious than before.

     "And He said, "Hear my words: if there is a prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself known to him in a vision; I speak with him in a dream. Not so with my servant Moses. He is faithful in all my house. With him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly, and not in riddles, and he beholds the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?"

Numbers 12:6-8

     "For if what was being brought to an end came with glory, much more will what is permanent have glory. Since we have such a hope, we are very bold, not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end. But their minds were hardened. For this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away. Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit."

2 Corinthians 3:11-18

     Here we see that Moses, one of the first people to live and work with God in such a lockstep, was different from all the other believers in His age, because before Jesus's new law only a few people could speak with God face to face and be transformed by Him. Now though, living under Christ and His indestructible cure to darkness of heart, everyone can see God face to face and speak with Him and live in a close covenant with Him. Today, Christians are the Lord's messengers even more than Moses was, every one. However, this can only be available to us if we choose to grow closer to God and live in lockstep with Him.

     In God's Word there are many descriptions of this Glory that we seek to know and embody. Often, these compare the Lord to the wonders of the world, storms and rainbows and crystals, to help the reader understand the descriptions better. For instance, Job 37:14-24 says, 

"Hear this, O Job,

Stop and consider the wondrous works of God.

Do you know how God lays his command upon them,

And causes the lightning of his cloud to shine?

Do you know the balancings of the clouds,

The wondrous works of him who is perfect in knowledge,

You whose garments are hot

When the earth is still because of the south wind?

Can you, like Him, spread out the skies,

Hard as a cast metal mirror?

Teach us what we shall say to him;

We cannot draw up our case because of darkness.

Shall it be told him that I would speak? 

Did a man ever wish that he would be swallowed up?

And now no one looks on the light

When it is bright in the skies,

When the wind has passed and cleared them.

Out of the north comes golden splendor;

God is clothed with awesome majesty.

The Almighty- we cannot find him;

He is great in power;

Justice and abundant righteousness he will not violate.

Therefore men fear him;

He does not regard any who are wise on their own conceit."

     "At once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne. And he who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald. Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones were twenty-four elders, clothed in white garments, with golden crowns on their heads. From the throne came flashes of lightning, and rumblings and peals of thunder, and before the throne were burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God, and before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass, like crystal. And around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind."

Revelation 4:2-6

     The Lord is gorgeous and spectacular in all His glory, radiant like the sun and colorful like the crystals He formed in the earth. We love Him and hope to emulate Him because His glory is the epitome of purity and love and grace, and living in these ways brings spiritual beauty and wealth of the heart. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.