Then Moses said to himself, Let me check out this amazing sight and find out why the bush isn’t burning up.
-Exodus 3:3

You could forgive Moses if he’d kept to himself. After all, the reason he ended up as a shepherd in the Midianite desert was because he couldn’t keep his nose out of other people’s business when he was a teenager in Egypt. But when Moses sees a bush on fire—a fire that keeps burning, not spreading and not dying—he lets himself get carried away. He says, “let me get closer to the thing that amazes me.” And, the next verse says, “When the LORD saw that he was coming to look, God called to him out of the bush.” And Moses responds, “Here I am.” Moses says “Here I am” to standing in awe. He says yes to being blown away by the sheer reality of being. Humans are very good at rationalizing their way out of awe, at keeping the miraculous and the unfathomably breathtaking at bay. Resilience, healing from wounds that threaten to harden your heart, is about remembering to stand in awe of goodness. It’s about coming to terms with the world’s greatest paradox: that beauty exists alongside, within, inside of, pain. And when we choose to blind ourselves to the awe-inspiring, we do so at the cost of our own resilience.

Takeaway:  Today, say “Here I am” to awe. Be easily impressed by stunning sights, or even by moderately cute ones. Be amazed by the fact of being. When something heartwarming catches your attention, let your heart be warmed. Spend three extra breaths with it. Stop to smell the flowers. Get caught staring at burning bushes. After all, how often do you get to see one?

Gathering the Stones is providing 40 days of reflections on resilience during Lent. Check back for new reflections every day (except Sundays).