Working out the weather

There’s an old saying: ‘Red sky at night, shepherd’s delight. Red sky in the morning, shepherds warning.’ This is a handy way to work out the weather forecast if you’re in the wilds. But it only applies to the northern hemisphere. The red sky in the evening is created by light being diffused by the dust suspended in the high pressure to the west of you. High pressure often means stable weather. Because the predominant direction of the prevailing weather in the northern hemisphere is west to east, it means stable weather is coming your way.

Simon Peter

This famous fisherman was as subtle as a bulldozer. Blunt, tough, honest and passionate – Peter was one of Jesus’ three closest followers. In this passage, Peter boldly says that Jesus is the Messiah and Son of God. Jesus then changed his name from Simon to ‘Peter’. Or in Aramaic, ‘Cephas’, which means ‘rock’. But Peter was also very human, and he wasn’t always solid and reliable – he later let Jesus down and denied knowing him three times. But Jesus forgave him and made Peter into a great leader.

The transfiguration of Jesus

After hiking up a high mountain, Jesus started to shine brightly with God’s glory in front of his three closest friends. Suddenly, Moses and Elijah stood beside him. They represented the Old Testament – all those strange laws and unfulfilled promises. Yet now it was all coming together in Jesus. Can you imagine what it was like for Peter, James and John to see this?