Tips on Tuesday: Fall Colors & the Burning Bush

I love fall. I love watching the leaves change colors and this year I’ve been extra in love with the leaves. The red leaves are my favorite and we usually don’t get much red here in the Midwest. I’ve seen more red this year, but my love of red leaves always makes me notice “Burning Bushes” when it’s fall.

Have you seen these bushes? Most of the year they are a terribly boring, plain green bush. You wouldn’t notice them, they don’t stand out. But when it’s fall, they change to the most magnificent red color and you can spot them from miles away. I drive around and my kids now know the litany as I say, “Look, there’s another burning bush.”

Part of my fascination is the reference to Exodus 3 where God appears to Moses in a “burning bush that is not consumed by fire.” Moses was a very ordinary man. He was a Hebrew boy who should have been executed as an infant, but his mother put him in a basket and floated him down the river where the Pharaoh’s daughter found and raised him. As a young man, he ended up killing an Egyptian and fleeing his country. Eventually God called to him from a burning bush and told Moses that he would lead his Hebrew people out of Egypt into a land flowing with milk and honey.

I don’t know about you, but I find that to be good news. Knowing that God used Moses with all his flaws to do something great. Even though Moses had killed a man, wasn’t a great speaker and was uncertain that he could do what God asked, God used him. It reminds me of myself and all my faults and how I’ve been entrusted with my children anyway. God is using me to raise these children even though I’m often too quick with my tongue, often inept at what I’m doing and some days I really don’t want the job. Burning bushes remind me that God can use me, just as I am, to do what He needs done. It also reminds me that God loves me just as I am and is using me right here with my family and friends. So the next time you see a burning bush, remember that God has called you just as you are, to this time and to this place, and remember that even with all of your faults, God is using you. Most of all, remember that God doesn’t use perfect people, but he does use people perfectly for His plans.