Such language strikes many people today as exaggerated, even grotesque. But the vision and the poetry aren't exaggerated in the slightest for those, like Peter, James and John, before whom Jesus Christ has loomed illumined. The language of intimacy that I speak to my wife and she to me never strikes either of us as exaggerated. Of course it would sound exaggerated to someone who had never been in love and therefore had never lived in the sphere of love. Once we are in love and live in love, however, we know that the most extreme love-language falls far short of the heart's surge.
Exaggeration is hereafter impossible.
Any moment of another's unforeseen disclosure and our unanticipated enrichment is awesome. Peter wants to freeze the moment, preserve it before it disappears. It might be a while before the next oasis appears. Nevertheless, to try to freeze such a moment is to kill it. Much as we want to, we can't seize the moment that has overtaken us, grasp it and try to hang on to it.