Now Moses, tending the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian, drove the flock into the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. An angel of the LORD appeared to him in a blazing fire out of a bush. He gazed, and there was a bush all aflame, yet the bush was not consumed.
Moses said, “I must turn aside to look at this marvelous sight; why doesn’t the bush burn up?” When the LORD saw that he had turned aside to look, God called to him out of the bush: “Moses! Moses!” He answered, “Here I am.”
-- Exodus 1: 1-4
In Exodus chapter one, two references are made to the importance of turning aside. As Moses turns aside from his troubles, he is able to see the angel of the Lord in a burning bush. Subsequently, when God sees that Moses turned aside to look, God calls out to him.
What does it mean to turn aside? In Moses’ case, he had plenty of burdens to lay down. Upon discovering that he was a Hebrew, rather than Pharaoh’s son, he murders a slave master who is beating one of his kin. Despite the intensity of these troubles, the text places a central importance on turning aside. While scholars have many interpretations of what this might mean, we might see it as a reminder to turn our burdens aside each day and “gaze” at the “marvelous sights” that God brings into our lives each day.
In our hectic lives, we often get caught up in the tasks and exigencies of the mundane. Especially, in these fraught, uncertain times, the temptation to hold onto our burdens and anxieties can make turning aside from our troubles to witness the “marvelous sights” difficult.
Sometimes, God tries to get our attention just as he does with Moses by means of the burning bush. At the top of our to-do list, can we find time each day to “turn aside,” that is lay our burdens and tasks aside and make time to renew or reflect on the “marvelous sights” God brings into our lives.
In the final line of my great-grandmother’s favorite prayer, Walter Rauschenbusch writes: “Save our souls from being so steeped in care or so darkened by passion that we pass heedless and unseeing, when even the thornbush by the wayside is aflame with the glory of God.” Amen
--The Rev. Katie Solter
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