Burning Bushes

by Shannon Ethridge

“When the LORD saw that he turned aside to look,
God called to him from the midst of the bush and said,
‘Moses, Moses!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’” (Exodus 3:4)


When I was a junior in high school, I was involved in a deadly auto accident. On my third day of class, as I made the ten-mile drive to school, I took a minute to apply my lipstick using the rearview mirror to make sure I put it on straight. Turning my eyes back to the road, something passed in the periphery of my vision. I felt something bump my car and thought that I had accidentally hit a stray farm animal. A split second later I had the horrible, sinking stomach feeling that something much worse than a cow or goat had been hit.

I was undamaged, in part because I’d put on my seatbelt. Wearing a seatbelt was rare for me as a teenager, but something I’d thought to do that morning. Later inspection of my car showed that I had been miraculously protected.

Unfortunately, my worst fears were realized when I saw the curly headed woman lying face down in the grass beside a mangled bike. Once the paramedic arrived, after what seemed to be an endless wait, I was told she had died on impact.

Anguish, despair, guilt and condemnation washed over me for hour on end. This was someone’s daughter, sister, wife, mother and it was my fault that she died! I was raised in church. I believed in God. But how could I ever be forgiven for something like this?

Later that same evening I was told that the woman’s husband wanted me to come to his home the evening before his wife’s funeral. I was utterly terrified.

As I walked toward the home of Gary and Marjorie Jarstfer, I felt as though I was about to meet a firing squad. But instead of receiving harsh, unkind, unforgiving words I was scooped into the warmest embrace I could imagine. Gary and I wept together. Afterwards he told me what kind of woman Marjorie had been kind, gracious and a faithful believer in Christ.

Marjorie was a woman whose walk with the Lord was so close that she had been telling Gary that she knew she was going to be called home. I was amazed. I couldn’t imagine that kind of intimacy with God. I was further astounded when Gary told me that he was passing Marjorie’s legacy of being a godly woman on to me. His deeds in the years that followed proved the truth of his words to me: “I want you to love Jesus without limits, just like Marjorie did. I want you to let Him use you for His glory, Shannon.”

While I will never be glad of the accident, it was my burning bush experience. God gained my attention through impossible circumstances and held onto me with His love and mercy.

Like Moses, the Lord called and equipped someone who would never have imagined being in a place to do something wonderful for God.

Like me, Moses had been responsible for someone’s death. Moses fled to the desert only to experience a surprise encounter with the King of Kings. A bush that burned, yet was not consumed, caught Moses’ attention. He turned to God, was equipped to minister, sent back to the land of his people’s captivity, then led them to freedom.

God used something that had been tragic as a catalyst to bring Moses to a place where he had a divine encounter that changed the course of two entire nations. Israel was freed and Egypt lost its slaves.

As dramatic as Moses’ story is, your burning bush doesn’t have to be a tragic experience. It could be something as simple as the majesty of seeing a hawk soaring in the sky, the beauty of a sunset’s reflection in a lake or even the sound of a baby’s giggle. Whether profound and tragic or simply delightful, whatever turns your heart and mind to the Lord is your burning bush.


This Week
Ask the Lord to show you His perspective on the circumstances of your life. Look at them as “burning bush” experiences, and let the Lord turn your tragedies into areas of strength and ministry.

Prayer
“Lord, please help me to respond correctly to the attention-getting devices that you have allowed in my life. Turn my eyes to you, so that I love you without boundaries and walk fearlessly before you. Amen.”



This devotional is based on Shannon Ethridge’s testimony from
Completely His: Loving Jesus Without Limits.