Why Not Become All Flame?
This account from Exodus 3:1-15 is one of my favorite passages in the entire Bible: Moses encountering G-d in the wilderness in the form of the burning bush. I find so much meaning and intimacy in this meeting, this moment where G-d directly introduces G-dself to Moses, and to all who encounter this narrative throughout the ages. This moment also marks the beginning of Moses’ prophethood, as he responds to G-d’s call.
There is so much here in this meeting that parallels our own lives and conditions. When we read these stories, we tend to read them and their characters as being distant and far away, the things happening to them occurring in some kind of holy vacuum; totally unique circumstances happening to totally unique people that don’t resemble us in any way, whom we now venerate from a safe distance. But what if we saw ourselves in these figures? What would that mean for us, for our relationship with G-d? What would this mean we are asked to do? How would we live and show up in relationship to one another?
