The Weekly Word - A Devotion for the Week of April 19
“Do not come any closer,” the Lord warned. “Take off your sandals, for you are standing on holy ground.” (Exodus 3:5)
It’s tempting to walk through our lives looking for the proverbial burning bush. We want big signs, dramatic miracles. We want to hear God call out to us, like he did with Moses, and show us something spectacular. We want undeniable proof of His presence.
When we fail to see dramatic evidence of God, we feel like we are missing Him. We might begin to second-guess ourselves, asking Is God really here with me at all?
And yet, the proverbial burning bushes and the Lazarus moments aren’t the only ways God shows Himself to His people in Scripture.
We also witness Elijah’s experience, when God came to him not in the dramatic fire, earthquake or wind, but in the “sound of sheer silence” (1 Kings 19:9).
We witness young Samuel, as he hears God call him quietly in the dark of night.
We witness Jesus retreat to a quiet place on a mountainside in the silence of the late evening and the early morning when he desires to hear the voice of His Father.
God is here and with us every step of the way in our daily lives. But sometimes we are blinded by our own expectations of where and how we will see and hear Him. Today, let us tune our senses to our surroundings. Every inch of Earth is God’s, and every bit is holy ground. As the poet Elizabeth Barret Browning once wrote, “Earth’s crammed with heaven, and every common bush afire with God.”
Let us make room in our busy lives for the quiet and space in which to experience God’s voice and presence. Let us open our eyes and ears to witness God’s holy presence all around us.
Gracious God, too often, in looking for the big signs, I miss Your very presence in my everyday life. Thank You for reminding me that you are found in silence and in the small, ordinary moments of my life, too. Amen.