“That is not normal.” Have you ever seen something extraordinary and thought that? The created world is full of wonders if our eyes are open. I saw a bald eagle behind my house in Hershey Park one day. Another day I looked up and brilliant planet Venus had nestled up to the moon. I found myself stopping people and pointing this out to them. It is amazing what we see if we are alert and our eyes are open.
Moses lived an interesting life. Born to a loving family, spared from a death sentence, raised in the house of Pharaoh, rejected as a savior for his people, exiled to Midian, he kept the flocks of his father in law. Then one day on Horeb, the mountain of God, he saw a burning bush. He noticed it because it was not being consumed. When he noticed, God spoke to him and told him to take off his shoes. Moses obeyed and discovered God’s greater plan for his life. God saw the suffering of the Israelites. Through Moses he would deliver them.
God does not play “hide and go seek,” but he does invite us to seek him and find him. God wants us to know him and his purpose for our lives much more than we want to know him. I know we say we are waiting for God, but sometimes I wonder if he is waiting for us. What if other bushes had been on fire, but Moses and others just didn’t notice?
Elizabeth Barrett Browning reimagined the story for all of us in verse: “Earth’s crammed with heaven and every common bush is afire with God, but only he who sees takes off his shoes. The rest sit ‘round and pluck blackberries.” Watch closely today and see where God shows up. If you see him, be sure to obey and to worship him.
