This week our Sunday School classes at church will begin studying a series of lessons designed to help us to know God more. When we were discussing potential topics of the lessons for our March Madness attendance campaign, we really wanted to create a series that would help everyone really connect what they are facing in life with what God and His church have to offer. We wanted to focus on the things that are often overlooked as we busily go about our lives, while still trying to figure out how we will survive the worst that life can throw at us.
The first lesson is about God’s meeting Moses at the burning bush- it’s the thing that God chose to use to get Moses’ attention. When I was beginning to write the lesson, I really thought about where Moses was, and I will admit that I felt a sense of compassion and sympathy for him. Though 40 years or so had passed, Moses still considered himself a fugitive from Egypt. The only home he had know, the only family he had known, was not a place he felt welcome. Though he had a family of his own, he was among strangers, twice removed from the people he was connected to by heritage.
I wondered if he felt abandoned. Did he ever wonder, “What in the world am I doing here?” Most definitely he felt alone. He was humbled. But then God, in a marvelous way, calls him out. God let Moses know that He saw him. Moses was not forgotten by God, and even more than that, Moses was being given an opportunity to do an incredible thing- to use abilities that he didn’t even know that he possessed. All those years in the wilderness, feeling worthy only of tending someone else’s sheep, and now the God of Israel was making Him an earthly leader of God’s chosen people, Israel.
Sometimes, even surrounded by people, even doing church work from early in the morning ’til late at night, I feel forgotten, alone, unseen by God, unknown. I would imagine that wherever you are, sometimes you might feel the same way. But the truth is that God does see us, He hasn’t forgotten us. He is right here waiting for the right time to call us out, to give us a marvelous sight, show us His glory, and move us out into a new adventure that we likely wouldn’t have chosen for ourselves.
Take a look at Exodus 3 this weekend and get a fresh perspective on who you are in God’s great, adventurous plan. What is God using to get your attention right now in your life?
This Road Home 