It was our Family Service this morning and the Gospel reading for today was the transfiguration, the account of Jesus, with Peter and James and John going up a mountain where Jesus is suddenly bathed in dazzling light and Moses and Elijah appear, talking with him.

Peter wants to hold on to this magical moment and says that he build three shelters, one for Jesus, one for Moses and one for Elijah. It is a touchingly human moment, the attempt just to hold on to a special moment.

The Junior Choir sang three songs: one based on Psalm 150, a spiritual about God’s angels watching over each person, and an unlikely song for a church service, Who will buy? from Lionel Bart’s Oliver. It is a song that expresses the very sentiments felt by Peter as he stood on the mountainside.

Who will buy
This wonderful morning?
Such a sky
You never did see!

Who will tie
It up with a ribbon
And put it in a box for me?

So I could see it at my leisure
Whenever things go wrong
And I would keep it as a treasure
To last my whole life long.

Who will buy
This wonderful feeling?
I’m so high
I swear I could fly.

Me, oh my!
I don’t want to lose it
So what am I to do
To keep the sky so blue?
There must be someone who will buy…

Asking the congregation about what things we did to preserve special moments, there were numerous suggestions; photographs, video, postcards, diaries, all the expected thing featured. But one boy told me he kept a memory box into which he placed special things, his first Game Boy, photographs of special occasions, things that were special to him.

The memory box seemed a wonderful idea. I wondered what I would have put into mine if I had kept one.