Moses, stopped in his tracks, was told to take off his sandals. He was, I AM, explained, standing on holy ground. What is holy ground? Surely, I AM was not talking about dirt, or sand, or even grass. We tend to think of our churches as edifices that occupy holy ground, but maybe not. We think of miraculous events as having occurred on holy ground, but maybe not. We teach our children that I AM was present, but concealed within the bush and as the result of His presence the ground in which the bush had been planted was now Holy Ground, but maybe not.
This encounter, between I Am and Moses, was unique and represented the conditions that framed the reason for what could be seen as happenstance, but more likely was the divine manner by which specific directions were to be given to one who took off his sandals and waited for another shoe to drop.
Holy ground may actually be the positive recognition and response that any of us makes to a definitive encounter with the I AM of creation. Who among us has never felt the strange, often inexplicable churning within that seems to demand some response? A burning bush was that which claimed the attention of Moses, but it could easily be something else as each of us continues to walk in paths that are often disrupted by circumstance that we easily file away as bad luck, good luck or percentages.
Today, I AM is more readily identified as Jesus, the Christ. It is the constant wooing of His desire to redeem us that wafts around us in swirling and tame tornadic fashion. He is everywhere, but often, for the lack of a burning bush, we miss the moment. Once, I AM performed startling events to gain the attention of the chosen people.
Today, with the advent of Jesus’ life, crucifixion, and resurrection, we are invited to respond to the burning invitation to come to Him by the acceptance of a blind faith that can never rest upon proof, as demanded by those who insist upon visible manifestations, but can be seen as the ‘bird’ of redemption that allows us to fly into the welcoming arms of that One who promises to keep us for all eternity.
This “bird in the hand,” along with the determination to live and finish a life dedicated to the needs of others, is better than ‘“two in the bush” that might be missed by poorly aimed efforts. If so, we are able to mature into those beings that fly, as if on the wings of eagles, and soar beyond the burning bushes of dramatic proof that I AM is near.
Some of us will say that I AM spoke to them. Most of us will never have that experience. The majority of us will never hear a voice coming from an inanimate object nor be startled by some event that stops us in our tracks and mesmerizes our senses.
Few of us, if any, will be instructed to take off our shoes because we are standing on holy ground.
Today, the last word to come from I AM would appear to be that which can be seen in Jesus. It is He who insisted that for the Father to be seen one need only look at the Son. The Son, often pictured as the shepherd, reminds us of the shepherd, Moses. We, too, can be standing upon holy ground, but that which holds us is just dirt. The holy ground is the realization that Jesus reaches for us in ways that often causes a burning within our souls and hopes, no doubt, that the flame will never die.
