This past Christmas, my husband and I gave our small toddler a teepee.  She adores it, and when she sees it, she says, “House! House! House!”  In a humorous way, this now reminds me of Peter in this story of the transfiguration.

Peter shows a child-like faith in this moment. “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” (vs. 4)  Here we have this incredible heaven-meets-earth experience (who can even imagine what this must have been like?!), and the first thing Peter wants to do is build a shelter for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah.  Who can blame him for wanting to stay there on the mountaintop?  But I chuckle to myself as I imagine Peter’s “shelter” that he would build for God is probably equivalent to the cloth teepee I just bought on Amazon for my one-year-old.

But Jesus doesn’t rebuke Peter.  Peter shows a genuine response of love and a desire to abide with His Lord and the fathers of faith.  I thank God that he accepts me in my child-like moments of faith and wants me to come to him.  He doesn’t laugh at or reject my cloth teepee, but invites me into the heaven-meets-earth experience to abide with him.