The last couple of days the setting sun has been startlingly bright reflecting off the leaves of the bush outside my window. It looked almost like the bush was on fire - which alongside the fact that we have been reading the start of the book of Exodus in chapel this week - has inevitably made me think about the story of the burning bush in Exodus 3. Moses, out in the desert shepherding flocks, saw that although the bush was on fire it was not burning up, and so he went to have a look. God called him by name - Moses! Moses! - and told him he was standing on holy ground and before commissioning him to return to Egypt to help set Israel free. It's a brilliant story.
As I watched this bush in Bristol look like it was on fire without burning up, it made me wonder how often I am prepared to be stopped in the midst of my regular day by the voice of God bringing the extraordinary out of the ordinary. Because I do believe that God speaks all the time to us. There have been lots of times even over the last couple of months where I have strongly felt I should do something at a specific time, and then been surprised when it has been just right. Is that coincidence or am I responding to the prompting of God's quiet whisper? Is the burning bush an optical illusion or a miracle? I suppose the answer is, this side of heaven, there is no way we can know for sure, but I have chosen to believe that God has both created me, and is intimately concerned with the life I live. So if I am willing to turn aside and listen, then why shouldn't I expect that miracle to happen, and for God to speak to me?
