A good fire, some hot dogs, a few smores, and a few good friends can be an extremely good time. Fires can be productive, destructive, or informative. How informative? I’m not talking about the musing moments passed staring at the fitful flames in a fireplace with a cup of hot cocoa. I’m talking about the flames that are a tie of the first two, productive and destructive. How can that be?

Moses was out on the job in Midian when he saw a burning bush that wasn’t consumed. The contradiction amazed him. He stopped, transfixed, and had a meeting with God. That meeting confronted the history of Moses, the history and agony of his people, and the purpose of God — all more than enough to consume Moses in flames. Two burning bushes faced each other, a bush that brought Moses to focus in God, and a Moses who would bring God’s people’s focus to God. Both the bush and Moses were insufficient to the tasks they were given. Both should have been consumed, but neither were. 

I am sure that each of us can relate a life event in which our personal destruction was imminent. I remember when my first child was born, a surprise caesarean when Tona and I were both unemployed. There was no way we would survive. Even now, I’m not sure how we did. Somehow jobs came, bills got paid, food was on the table, and a roof was over our head. We were in front of a burning bush. We should have burned with the bush. God provided then and for any and all of the other moments we thought were totally cataclysmic at the time of the event. 

So, why the bonfire that didn’t consume? Actually it did consume. The fire consumed my ambivalence toward God. I was brought to sincere prayer and focus. It consumed the path I was walking to set me on a better path for God’s purpose in my life. Like Moses, I quit doing what I was doing and started doing a more focused and intentional walk in the direction God was pointing me. 

I would like to say that I was good about it, but even Moses complained and tried to get out of the job. God adapted the plan to get Aaron as spokesman because Moses was hard pressed to go along. I’m not sure that I could say I was as cooperative as the uncooperative Moses at my times of being refocused and redirected. Moses created many excuses, and so did I. Excuses are not the point. 

The point is that God set up an impossible situation to refocus and redirect. The appearance of a cataclysm that didn’t consume is a miracle that I often remember only through the fear of the moment, rather than as a starting point for dramatic change that was created by a Jesus intent on rescue and not on destruction. Miranda, our first born, is still alive and well. I found the career I was meant to do. We were shifted toward victories we couldn’t imagine at the time. That is just one example. With Jesus, there is always more.

I have the luxury of looking back. My experience teaches me to be extremely grateful to Jesus who was not satisfied with less, but intended to give me more. Looking back teaches me to look forward. A burning bush is a time to truly expect the Lord to speak, refocus, redirect, and prove Himself as God over all the small things like nature and my life. He is trustworthy and worthy of all praise. He tells us, as He told so many of His leaders in scripture, to be bold, to be courageous, and to trust Him, even when the bush is on fire.