Every bush afire from Heaven

Yesterday Kim and I joined some friends on the brow in Mentone, Alabama. It overlooks a valley and it is simply beautiful. As I sat and looked at the fog/mist covering the valley I was just struck with the mystery of it. As the sun rose, the mist left, and the edge of the brow, which was covered in bushes and trees, was alive with bird after bird sining praises to God.

I sat there thinking of a poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning and of Exodus 3. Let’s start with Exodus 3 and the Burning Bush and I’ll share the poem at the end. This is one of the most famous passages in the Bible. In it we encounter a theophany. A theophany is a visible manifestation of God. We see it when God appears to Abraham as a smoking firepot, we see it again with the two angels; we see it in Jacob’s life when he wrestles with God; we see it when God comes as fire by night and a cloud by day; the elders of Israel saw Him and fellowshipped with Him on the mountain; we see it in Isaiah’s life and we could go on and on. Moses is encountered by God in an amazing way and from this text we can see how we are encountered by God.

Almost every one is looking for an encounter with a Spiritual Reality. As we approach this we need to ask a few questions about encountering God or being encountered by God: How do we do it?, What is it?, Why is it possible?, and When do we know it has happened? To answer those questions God gives us this text.

The bush tells us how it happens. As we look at it, remember where Moses is and why he is there. He had to flee Egypt because he took matters into his own hands. His life is on one big detour—fact is when the Bible says Moses went over to look—the word means to turn aside or to detour. The only reason Moses is in the wilderness is that his whole life has become a detour—if you were to ask him, his whole life is going wrong, but in that detour Moses has another detour—one that will change his life forever. You see it was only by things going wrong that Moses gets near to God.

Notice he sees the bush and says, “I will turn aside.” Don’t lose sight of this—Moses had to make the decision to go over—he had to turn aside. God didn’t speak to him until he saw that he had gone over to look. Why does he go over? Why does he turn aside? He does it because God is drawing him with a bush—Moses called it a great sight, or some translations say, a strange sight. The word strange has a negative connotation in English, but it refers to something that is unexplainable. The bush was supposed to burn up, but it didn’t—it was outside of Moses’ mode of reality.

What can we learn from the bush? Your encounters with God will most often come when you are on what you may call a detour. Joseph didn’t intend to be in Egypt, but that is where God wanted him. Moses didn’t intend to be in the wilderness—he was groomed to be a leader, but God had other plans. You may not have planned to be where you are right now, but your detour may just be an opportunity for a God encounter. Isn’t it ironic that the most epic God encounter with a human comes as the result of a detour? When you are on a detour—you think like you would not ordinarily think, you seek like you would not ordinarily seek—when you are in the wilderness you meet God. What we call detours is really Spiritual Mainstream. When it is not going like you think it should take time to turn aside.

The next thing we can learn from the bush is that when things are going wrong—you’ll still have to turn aside. Moses had to leave the ordinary busyness of life to go over and see and then, and only then, did God speak to him. How many times do we get near to where God wants us to be and refuse to turn aside? How many opportunities have we missed because we were doing what we wanted to do rather than turning aside to meet God in the bushes?

You must turn aside or you will never meet with God and you’ll never encounter the Spiritual Reality. Notice something else—it is just a bush. It wasn’t a red oak, it wasn’t a canyon, and it wasn’t a sunset—it was just a bush. God appeared to Elijah in a gentle whisper—not in the wind, earthquake or fire. The ordinary things can become extraordinary if you will turn aside and see God in them. Here is the beginning of the poem,

“Earth’s crammed with Heaven

And every common bush afire with God.

But only he who sees takes off his shoes—the rest

Sit around and pick blackberries.”

In the failures, in the disappointments, in the heartaches—God reminds you that you were created for a world beyond this one. Seek Him in those times and you will be found. Stop and worship…don’t just pick blackberries!