Treading Holy Ground...the Divine and me!

 “This is amazing,” Moses said to himself. “Why isn’t that bush burning up? I must go see it.” When the Lord saw Moses coming to take a closer look, God called to him from the middle of the bush, “Moses! Moses!”  “Here I am!” Moses replied.“Do not come any closer,” the Lord warned. “Take off your sandals, for you are standing on holy ground.  I am the God of your father—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” When Moses heard this, he covered his face because he was afraid to look at God.  Then the Lord told him, “I have certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their cries of distress because of their harsh slave drivers. Yes, I am aware of their suffering.  So I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and lead them out of Egypt into their own fertile and spacious land. It is a land flowing with milk and honey—the land where the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites now live.  Look! The cry of the people of Israel has reached me, and I have seen how harshly the Egyptians abuse them.  Now go, for I am sending you to Pharaoh. You must lead my people Israel out of Egypt.”   Exodus 3:3-10 (MSG)


I grew up in holy places...and so did you.  Holiness is inherent by God whose presence is Holy.  So in the places of our lives where God is, which I believe is everywhere, we find ourselves on holy ground. The story of Moses and the burning bush always comes to mind when I hear the words "holy ground."  And I remember that God tells Moses to remove his shoes.

I'm a barefoot kind of girl.  (Ask my mom and she'll tell you that growing up it wasn't rare to find me without my shoes and socks on at any time of the year.)  I always loved visiting our friends with the practice of taking shoes off at the door.  It was, for me, like a fancy treat to walk around barefoot in some else's home.  Something about it made me feel like I was "at home" there.  I am sure it was a practical thing to keep the floors clean but when you think about it...there is an implied intimacy to inviting people to remove their shoes in your home.  Instead of the impersonal shoe touching your floors, the person touches them.  The connections are made and illuminated when we make ourselves "at home."

Now back to Moses, I always thought that it was disrespectful to walk on the holy ground with sandals...but what if it was an invitation for closeness.  Imagine how different it is to touch the ground barefooted.  It's risky on the gravel, hot pavement in the summer, and in the woods with who knows how many branches and other things just waiting to stick you (no pun intended).  What if it was a way to connect more fully with God in the moments of the burning bush conversation?  What if it was God's way of saying find yourself "at home" with me?

 So in the stories about people walking on holy ground and taking off their sandals I imagine that they too had a sense of finding themselves "at home."  Although to be honest the thought of being "at home" with the Divine although amazing...also makes me a little wary of what I will be invited to do.  I know God to be radical and loving in ways that call me out of my comfort and into an amazing freedom of finding abundant life.  God has rarely invited me into the life I expected but I have always found that God's ideas were better than anything I could have imagined.  So I have learned and am learning still to let go of what I expect and to live into what God intends.

I want to be close to the Divine.  So shoes off and toes down...holy ground here I am, where do we go from here?