I went to church with my sister yesterday and just sat there the whole time saying, “Yep”.

It was very anticlimactic considering how the truth of it all was welling up within me until I felt just so full to bursting I imagined myself as the Violet Beauregarde of enlightenment.

Pastor Dave was preaching on Exodus 3:1-6

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."

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."

5 "Do not come any closer," God said. "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground." 6 Then he said, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob." At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.

He spoke of how Moses was instructed to remove his shoes because he was on holy ground. Now, I was raised in the church, and I have heard this passage somewhere along the lines of 7 begibbertymillion times. I had always considered it holy ground because God was in the bush.

Pastor Dave opened my eyes to an expanded version of the significance of Moses’ removal of his shoes. The desert was holy ground. The place where God’s people - who were waiting for the promised land - were wandering, anguished and in pain, was holy ground.

The desert is holy ground.

These moments in life that we try to rush through, recover from, move away from, are our holy ground. We all have deserts in our lives. Difficult jobs, struggling marriages, infertility, waiting for a mate, unemployment, disaster, the death of a child. And God is in every single one. Not only is he there, but we are to be there also.

I think we spend so much time running from our struggles that we forget this is our life. Every single minute we are given is a gift; even the moments of pain and suffering are moments we have been given. There is joy to be found, and life to be lived, even when it seems that there is only misery and anguish. Because life is not just in the “happy” moments. Life is not just “when things get better”. Life is now. Life is here. God is now. God is here.

The moment my son died, he was in his father’s arms, and I was all wrapped up and intertwined with the two of them, just adoring them, singing with his Daddy and absolutely loving the fact that we had him. We had our baby with no stupid tubes and wires, just us. It was one of the best moments of my life. There was joy in the moment I said goodbye to my only son.

I hope that’s what I have been telling all of you. I hope that’s what Joel has been saying all along. That life is to be lived now. Here. In the desert. Wherever we may be, we are on holy ground.

Wherever we may be, we are in the presence of a God who loves us more than we can ever comprehend. I’m trying to remember that, to live it even here where so many days feel desolate and miserable.

I will do it for Joel if for nothing else. Thank you my son, for pointing out that life, even without you, or maybe especially without you, is holy ground.