The Night Blaise Pascal Saw Fire

On the evening of November 23, 1654, the French mathematician Blaise Pascal sat alone in his room in Paris. What happened next lasted roughly two hours, but it marked him forever. He experienced an overwhelming encounter with the living God — so intense he could only describe it with one word repeated: "Fire." He scrawled his account on a scrap of parchment, noting the "certitude, certitude, feeling, joy, peace" that flooded his soul. He wrote of "the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob — not of the philosophers and scholars."

When the experience ended, Pascal did something remarkable. He sewed that parchment into the lining of his coat. He carried it against his chest every day for the remaining eight years of his life. No one discovered it until after his death.

Peter wanted to build three shelters on that mountain and stay in the blazing presence of the transfigured Christ. But Jesus led them back down into the valley, back to a world of suffering and doubt and demon-possessed children. The glory was not meant to be a permanent residence — it was meant to be a parchment sewn into the lining of their hearts.

Every believer is given moments when the veil thins and the Almighty breaks through. We cannot stay on the mountain. But we carry the fire with us into every ordinary Monday that follows.