Radiant Sunrise, Wrightsville Beach, NC
The third chapter of Exodus tells about the first encounter Moses has with God in the desert. Moses is tending sheep after killing an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew and he is now a fugitive. God has selected Moses to rescue his people from Egyptian bondage. It was not uncommon to see fires in the desert due to lightning strikes and all of the dried vegetation. But Moses encountered a burning bush that was not being consumed by the fire. God wanted to capture his attention and he certainly did so.
Many of us have wrestled with a troubling problem when we suddenly had one of those sudden “Ah Ha” moments where the solution appears to us with brilliant clarity. And I bet many of us have also experienced one of those “burning bush” moments when God has sought our attention for the solution to a problem or to discern a meaningful insight. There’s an old saying that sometimes you have to smack someone with an ax handle to get their attention. But fortunately, God has other less painful methods to employ.
One of our Creator’s most common attention getters that we frequently overlook is the sun’s seemingly never consuming flames. Sunrises and sunsets are generated by an enormous ball of gaseous flames every day of our lives. Many of these “burning bush” moments grab our attention and give us pause to reflect. We need to regard them as daily reminders of new opportunities to make a difference in our individual lives, our family, our community and our world. And its beautiful brilliance sure beats a whack on the backside by an ax handle!
