Catch Fire After Exodus 3:1-15 I AM keeps constant. Presence like fire remains ablaze. The dead, not bound in memory, live. God feels the depression and sees. YHWH inhabits all tenses. The smoke from embers of freedom still are rising. And I catch fire.
The story of Moses and the burning bush remains one of my favorite accounts in Scripture.
First, consider the biome where Moses is.
It’s arid grassland. There, things catch fire—followed quickly by the smell of smoke, and then it’s all over.
But this fire keeps burning. What a strange sight. Moses is intrigued. This fire goes against all logic and experience.
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? Are they still alive?
We too often think about God, and even our experiences with God, quite safely in the past. We think back to those retreats and service projects or other gatherings where God moved unmistakably, and you discovered a glimmer of freedom—"Wow, is this what life could be like for me?”
And then life goes on. We think fondly of the past and approach the present and future with a bit of angst.
We sometimes talk about Jesus the same way—like God in Christ was only an actor in history once upon a time and not now.
But today, I AM is present, enduring reality,
and the flame of God’s extravagant and freeing love
is still ablaze.