EX 3:1 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."

EX 3:4 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."

If I was Moses, I would have thought this was weird. Like the time I was out fishing on Grand Manan and thought there was a boat on fire ahead of us. In the pre-dawn blackness, a deck light shimmering a mile away looked like it was burning. The weird part was that the captain of the boat thought everything was normal, and there was no radio activity. "Am I seeing things?" I thought. Yup, I was the seeing things. Man, did I ever feel stupid.

Like me that morning on the water, did Moses think he was seeing things? Had 40 years of tending his father-in-law's sheep finally driven him nuts? Did he wonder what they would say back at the barn -- "Hey Moses, see any burning bushes lately?"

Moses decided to turn away from the sheep to investigate, and then it happened. God spoke through the burning bush. It was when Moses had turned away from the sheep and went to look that God spoke. God didn't call out first. God spoke after Moses went to look. God speaks to us when we turn away from the regular routine to see what he is up to.

I don't know about you, but I find it hard to go over to look. The alarm sounds in the back of my head that something is undone. (Rrrrrriiiinnnnnggggg.) I won't have enough time to do it all. (Beeeeeeeeep, beeeeeeeeep.) I should be doing something else. (ding, ding, ding, ding). I wonder -- Did Moses worry about leaving the sheep to check out the bush?  Would something happen to them while he was on this "side-trip" ?

Had Moses not gone over to look, he would have missed the biggest thing God had going on. I don't want to think about the things I may have missed because I didn't take the time to "to go over to look." For 20 years I didn't keep a regular time for Bible study and prayer.

The good news is that God wants to speak to us. All we have to do is take the time to listen. When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him...