Dr. William Stidger once told of a lovely little 90-year-old lady named Mrs. Sampson. Mrs. Sampson was frail, feeble, even sickly. But Dr. Stidger said that when he was discouraged he always went to visit Mrs. Sampson. She had a radiant spirit that was contagious.

One day he asked this 90-year-young woman, "What is the secret of your power? What keeps you happy, contented and cheerful through your sickness?"

She answered with a line from a poem, "I had an hour of glory on a windswept hill."

Bill Stidger said, recounting this experience, "I knew she had been in touch with God and that was the whole reason [for her cheerfulness]."

Listen again to her words: "an hour of glory on a windswept hill." It sounds very much like the experience Peter, James and John had on the Mount of Transfiguration.

Sometimes we refer to special events in our life as "a mountaintop experience." Many of us have had such experiences, a time when God seemed very close. It may have been on an actual mountain. It may have been by a seaside. Dare I say it? It may even have happened in a worship service.  Such things have happened to people within the walls of this church. I hope it happens to you today.