I don’t know about you, but near us there are lots of trees on fire! Not literally, but Autumn seems to brought out a huge flash of bright red and orange in some trees, leaving the rest of the leaves green. It’s like some giant paint brush has splodged them or like they’re on fire.

I love Autumn, and I often play Top Tree Praise and pray with conkers but this year the trees ‘on fire’ reminded me of Moses and the burning bush:

Now Moses was keeping the flock of Jethro (Reuel) his father-in-law, the priest of Midian; and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb (Sinai), the mountain of God. ² The Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing flame of fire from the midst of a bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush was on fire, yet it was not consumed.

Ok, so here’s what first struck me: Moses saw the bush – he noticed it. This reminds me to keep my eyes open. Do you ever have children in the car pointing our things along the road which you hadn’t even noticed? They seem to be very good at living in the present moment and noticing what’s going on around them. Have you noticed any trees ‘on fire’ near you? This Autumn I want to get better at looking, at noticing.

³ So Moses said, “I must turn away [from the flock] and see this great sight—why the bush is not burned up.”

Moses didn’t just look. He stopped what he was doing to investigate. Again, children are good at this. When they see something interesting (a bug on the road), they stop and investigate (making our walk a slow one!). I often have an agenda and a schedule to which I’m trying to keep so I’m not as good as my children are at slowing down and taking time to investigate something which isn’t in The Plan. However, God is often found in the things not on my List of Things to Do. Such as the parent at the gate who wants to chat. This Autumn I want to get better at stopping, at turning away from my agenda to engage with what might be God’s.

⁴ When the Lord saw that he turned away [from the flock] to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” ⁵ Then God said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet [out of respect], because the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” Exodus 3:1-5 Amplified Bible

And then, when God saw that Moses had turned away to look, God called to him. Wow. This is what I want in my life – to hear God speak to me, to be connected with Him during my whole day. This Autumn I want to let the ‘firey trees’ be my reminder to look, stop and acknowledge God’s presence with me; to look for His agenda, to listen for His voice.

Here’s my visual Bible meditation on these verses.

Here’s some Autumnal ways to connect with God