The Burning Bush

by June Friesen

THE BURNING BUSH – 5:45 A.M. 5/15/20

I looked!

I saw!

I stopped!

I said, “Do you see it?”

“It is as if the center of the tree is afire!

I looked some more…….I pondered……

How beautiful this is…….

The needles are green as if they are not affected at all….

Hmmmm……

I wonder…….

For one thing, I know I will never be the same.

I will never see that tree as before –

But…could I ever know how I would never be the same –

How could I have ever known that three hours later I would realize a powerful reality –

A reality – that in all truth –

I had just had a meeting with God –

Literally my own spiritual ‘burning bush/tree experience!’

And how the rush of emotions, the myriad of feelings,

The wonderment of what had been orchestrated not by me but by God.

But first let me stop and look at Moses and his burning bush experience:

For Moses – God needed his attention –

God knew there was someone who needed to be freed from their present captivity,

God knew someone needed to be alerted in a profound way,

And certainly God needed someone who would not be distracted or deterred;

Yet, Moses was not so sure of all of what was happening –

And then he heard a voice from somewhere –

But he was in the desert – alone – no one was there –

And then as the voice spoke that he was on holy ground –

Moses realized he was in the presence of God –

And he listened – and God spoke.

I do not know the time span of Moses experience –

I do not know how it was that God accomplished all the details with Moses –

I do not need to know all the details to know

That it was a life changing experience for Moses –

And it began a whole path for Moses in his walk with God as well as his life work on earth.

Profoundly affected by the experience of that tree I saw –

And how unusual it was, and why was it that I saw it –

And how I absolutely had to stop…………..

I stopped………

I looked……..but I wonder – did I really see?

Oh, I saw….but what? Why? How Come?

One thing like Moses – I was on a high ‘spiritual alert!’

And THEN…..THEN……

As I was typing ‘it was like a burning bush’ in a text in my phone –

My phone buzzed with a text –

“Good News. I am being moved.”

The tears fell, I choked up….God that was you this morning –

You wanted me to know You had not forgotten your little broken lamb –

He was going to be moved to a place where he could get the care that he needed.

I trembled – I shook – my voice quivered as I tried to share –

“God, how I thank you that you have ways to begin to prepare us to see your presence and power at work, not only in our lives personally but also the lives of those close to us. God, I thank you that there are often times we can refer back to your Scriptures and see that you indeed are the same yesterday, today and forever even though things may not be orchestrated in exactly the same way. And now O God may I be faithful to You even more so that your power will be able to not only work in me but through me- may your power also be in work in the life/lives of those immediately a part of this experience. Amen and amen.

And yes, this happened in the midst of the pandemic – and even if this time many feel imprisoned so to speak, some inside their homes, some inside care facilities, some one the outside not being able to go in, some who have actually contracted the disease (may have recovered or now family members experience a loss if recovery did not happen)….. The people tried to imprison Jesus as well first of all by their own rules and laws and finally in a tomb. But God Almighty had the final word with that final earthly imprisonment of His Son Jesus – and that was new and resurrected life. Today I am encouraged because of this resurrection of Jesus. And while I still endure imprisonment in several ways because of earthly circumstances and most of all this virus, I am going to choose living my life to the fullest that I can at this present moment. I encourage you to do the same – and by the way don’t miss those ‘God-surprising moments’ along your pathway.

June Friesen 2020