1 Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. 3 So Moses thought, "I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up."
4 When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, "Moses! Moses!"
And Moses said, "Here I am."
5 "Do not come any closer," God said. "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground."
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"Take off your sandals"
A seemingly simple command from a familiar passage. Four months of college education, though, has taught me to look beyond the surface and to question words and sentence structures that, at first, appear to be out of place. The first question that popped in my mind upon re-reading this passage is why God would ask Moses to take off his sandals - and not anything else - whilst standing on Holy Ground.
Moses must have walked around a lot. In fact, a lot is probably an understatement. His feet would, undoubtedly, have been dirty almost all the time - not to mention worn-looking. Calluses, bruises, blisters - you name it, he probably had it. And yet, God asks him to remove his sandals to reveal what may have been the ugliest part of his body.
God has been teaching me a lot about salvation lately. How it is completely about Him, and not how many or how few times I fall. Sure, I need to try and live a life that pleases Him. But that's all I can do - try. I can't be any better. God wants all of us to realize this; I think we find the reason behind the removal of the sandals here.
We all have ugly traits, traits that we don't want anyone else to see. Yet God wants us not to hide these traits, but to reveal them. This is not to condemn us, but to show us how much we need Him. Salvation is a gift which we have been given to accept. It doesn't matter that we aren't good enough. It's a gift that has already been given anyway.
In this New Year, I encourage you to pray and ask God for more opportunities to go beyond your comfort zone for Him, because serving Him is really the only way we can give back. Don't ever let feelings of "not being ______ enough" ever hinder you. We all fall. You just have to get back up again to continue your journey towards heaven.
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