Lent 2010 #2

Acts 7:30-34

30 "Now when forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in the flame of a burning bush. 31 When Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight; and as he approached to look, there came the voice of the Lord: 32 "I am the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.' Moses began to tremble and did not dare to look. 33 Then the Lord said to him, "Take off the sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. 34 I have surely seen the mistreatment of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their groaning, and I have come down to rescue them. Come now, I will send you to Egypt.'

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THOUGHTS:

This New Testament passage retells the story of Moses. In the story, we hear God telling His prophet that He sees the suffering and is going to do something about it. I find that to be a rather comforting thought. This is a story of God calling Moses and is one of the many “call” stories from the Bible.

What makes this passage so different is that instead of God coming to the person he is calling, Moses comes to him, on accident of course. This is what really got me thinking. As Christians, I find we spend a lot of time talking about what God is calling us to do. We spend much less time talking about where we meet God.

God called Moses from a burning bush: just a lowly bush and basic elemental fire. Where do we find our own burning bushes? In what places does God surprise us?

I know for me, one of those places is in sunrises and sunsets. The picture above does not do justice to the sunrise from the top Mount Sinai. While there I could feel God’s presence and the sacredness of the location. For me it was a “burning bush” moment, even though I am still working out what God was saying to me. It just so happened that the burning bush is in the Monastery at the base of the mountain. (see the picture below)

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PRAYER:

Heavenly Father, as we celebrate Lent, our attention turns to you. Allow us to see Your presence in our lives and in the world around us. Make us more aware of the “burning bush” moments in our lives. Grant us what we need to continue to on our paths through Lent so that our Lent might be fruitful. In Christ name we pray, Amen.

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Thoughts by Christopher Bergtholdt, a Senior at George Mason University
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These devotions for young adults are provided by:
Lutheran Campus Ministry at George Mason University http://www.gmu.edu/org/lutheran
Lutheran Student Association at the University of Maryland http://terpconnect.umd.edu/~lutheran/lsa/
DC Young Adults http://www.dcyoungadults.org/
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