Jesus will go with me

1970 something

Everybody out to go to Sunday School was more than a song at our house, it was a way of life.  If it was Sunday, everybody went to Sunday school.  One of my favorite visual aids teachers would bring to class was a peep box. A peep box, usually a shoe box, depicted a scene from the morning's story.  The top of the box would be covered with crepe paper with a hole in the front of the box for "peeping". Sometimes we would take turns peeping to see if we could guess the story for the day.  One of the boxes I remember included a piece of fake greenery, red cellophane paper, a lot of dirt, a small flash light and an empty pair of paper sandals.  Can you guess the story? I'll give you a hint. The cellophane paper was wrapped around the greenery with the flash light shining through the paper.  You got it, Moses and the burning bush. 

Fifteen years or so later , during my morning prayer time - well, let me honest, my prayer was pretty much me whining and complaining to God while driving to work. I was feeling more than a little overwhelmed with what I felt was more responsibilities than I could handle.  The more I complained, whined and fretted to God the clearer this image became in my mind; the image of shoe box with burning bush inside! I began rehearsing the story in my mind. Moses kills an
Egyptian, flees to a foreign country,  encounters God in a burning bush, says to God I think you have the wrong guy. Well, I hadn't killed anyone, I was driving in what still felt like a foreign country and I might have been wondering if God had the wrong girl, but I didn't see any burning bushes, only large irrigation systems and a lot of dirt. The image and the story stayed with me through the work day, through my evening Economics class and all the way home through my 32 mile drive in the wilderness of SW Kansas.

When I finally made it home that night, I found my Bible and began reading the story in Exodus, chapter 3.  A little more honesty - I was not expecting to read anything I had not heard a million times since my first remembrance of the story in the peep box.  However, when I got to verse 12 reading words I had read many times I heard words that I had missed before.  In verse 10, Moses is given an assignment, in verse 11, he says, "me?", and in verse 12, God says, "I will be with you...". Those words leaped off the page at me.  Of all the things God could have said to Moses at that moment, this is what he chose.  This was a moment that defined the purpose of Moses's life. A moment God had prepared for him from the time he spared his life in a basket.  Who better than Moses to rescue the Hebrew people from the Egyptians? Moses who was born a Hebrew and raised as the grandson of the Pharaoh.  It seemed so obvious that God had prepared him for this moment and this assignment. It is more than interesting to me that God did not chose to remind Moses of these things. He didn't say, of course you Moses.  He simply said, I will be with you. Even as Moses continued to question if God had the right man, God did not bring up any of Moses's experience or qualifications.  He answered Moses's questions with what He would do.  He would lead, He would prepare, He would perform miracles and He would give the words.

In that moment in my life, all I needed to hear was that God was with me and that He would direct, He would perform miracles, and He would speak.  My inadequacies nor my adequacy were the issue. 

If you are in one of those moments where you like Moses are questioning God's choice, hear His words to Moses from Exodus 4:12, "Now go! I will be with you ... I will instruct you." (NLT) 

Moses's journey was full of challenges, but I believe he learned the value of the presence of God.  One of my favorite sermons I remember my Dad preaching comes from a later conversation between God and Moses found in Exodus 33.  Moses says to God, "If you don't personally go with us, don't make us leave this place." (Verse 15) I think he heard the lesson at the burning bush!

My mama & I shortly before I started
school in 1969.

My mom loves to tell about a time just before I started school.  She was a little nervous about me being without her and she tells me I said, "Mama, Jesus will go with me."  (How precious is that!)  I am so grateful for a Mother and so many others teaching me this lesson early in life.  I am more grateful for a God who brings peep boxes to my memory exactly when I need to remember.

Thanks for listening
See you next Sunday,

Ronda

Hear the Word of the Lord from the Book of Zephaniah.
"The Lord your God is with you, He is mighty to save, He will take great delight in you, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing."