Suffering Divine Things

O Adonai, and leader of the House of Israel,who appeared to Moses in the fire of the burning bush and gave him the law on Sinai:Come and redeem us with an outstretched arm.

Now that I have been reminded that you truly are a God who hides, and I realize seeking your elusive presence in solitude is truly to seek Wisdom, I come to see that to call you my Lord is to follow in the footsteps of Moses.  Can I choose not to identify with the laws and ways of power and control guiding the world into which I was born?  Is it possible to reject my adopted royal family and embrace a hidden and more true identity if in doing so it leads to suffering and exile?  In exile, while sitting at the foot of the holy mountain and shepherding the herds of my thoughts, will I notice the bush that burns yet does not consume?  Will I heed the voice that calls me forward and warns me to take off my shoes?  What is this bush that burns?  Where is this holy ground? Behold, this Lord who self-reveals offers a law and a furnace of compassion and mercy to test the words of life.  This great Adonai liberates by revealing the Holy Name and in so doing burns away all that I am not in flames of compassion and mercy.  Will I suffer divine things long enough so my Lord’s law can be inscribed on my heart and I may learn my role in the liberation, the redemption of the Lord?  Will I allow my fragile and hurting heart to be touched by loving hands?  Will I reach out to the outstretched arm before me?

O Adonai…Come and redeem us with an outstretched arm.