Middle School Moses

I was not very cool in Middle School. I admit it. I've accepted it.

 I did band, theater, show choir , Odyssey of the Mind and was all around a little bit lame.

And you're probably thinking- "No Katie, no one was cool in Middle School".

But I beg to disagree.

Gymnastics? Cool.

Cheerleading?  Cool.


Spandex neon cheetah print glitter pants? Cool.

An overweight girl trying to do gymnastics and cheerleading routines and trying to squeeze into said pants? Not cool.

But I had one redeeming grace.

My two best friends were cool. People wanted to hang out with them, boys wrote notes to them, and so, somehow, through the social filtration system, I was allowed into the "cool" parties. 

So, I followed at their skirt tails, and generally stood by the snack table, or talking to the parents that were there chaperoning the parties.

But that didn't matter. Because I was at the party. 

I couldn't have gotten in by myself. If I had walked up, all chubby cheeked and skort wearing, I probably would have been laughed at and turned away.

It wasn't about who I was. It was about who was with me.

The same thing happened to Moses- well, he never wore skorts.

Moses was out tending his sheep one day, when he came upon a bush that was burning. And burning. And burning. But the bush never actually burned away.

And then, to top it all off, the bush called his name. 

"Moses, Moses"

Now, if I was Moses, I would have left those sheep and ran as fast as I could. But in those days, talking burning plant life must have been normal because Moses simply stayed and answered

"Here I am".

God then told Moses that he had seen the misery of the Israelites who had been enslaved by the Egyptians and Moses was going to be the one to get His people out of Egypt. He was to go to the Pharaoh and tell him that he was about to lose his millions of slaves, and he was just going to have to be OK with that. 

Now, if that burning plant hadn't been enough to send Moses packing, the fact that he was about to have to go break this news to the ruler of his country ( who also happened to be his adopted grandfather) would have done it. But there's a reason he's in the Bible, because he simply accepted his challenge and said

“Who am I to appear before Pharaoh? Who am I to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt?”

and God responded

"I will be with you."

He didn't say "Moses you've got this" or "Moses, you will succeed due to you sheer strength and butt kicking abilities in those awesome Birkenstock looking sandals you're wearing"

He simply gave the only answer Moses needed.

You can do it, because I will be with you.

You are nobody, but with me, you can bring an entire country to their freedom.

You may not be able to get into that totally cool Halloween party by yourself, but I'm going to let you be my plus one.

And with that amazing reassurance, that promise that whatever we come upon, God will be there with us, to take us by the hand and walk us through this crazy life, who are we to fear?

We have the ultimate, eternal, powerful plus one.

Whether we look good in glittery animal print pants or not.