Every Bush is Burning (Moses, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, et al)

In this episode, Scott Bryson, PhD, reflects on a simple but powerful idea: every bush is burning.We begin with the story from the book of Exodus, where Moses encounters God in the form of a burning bush. According to the story, the divine can’t appear fully to Moses—the power would overwhelm him—so it shows up through something ordinary: a bush that burns without being consumed.But what if that moment isn’t unique?The Victorian poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning offered a striking answer in her poem Aurora Leigh: “Earth’s crammed with heaven, / And every common bush afire with God.” Her point is that the world is already full of meaning, beauty, and even holiness. The difference isn’t the bush. It’s whether we see it.Some people notice the fire and take off their shoes in awe. Others sit nearby, plucking blackberries, unaware.From there, we widen the lens. Writers as different as Richard Rohr, William Stafford, and Louise Erdrich all circle around the same insight: the sweetness of life, the mystery, the significance—it’s been here all along. Sometimes it takes a grasshopper, a brush with death, or a quiet moment in nature or with a book to remind us.But the invitation is simple.We don’t have to travel to a holy mountain to encounter the sacred. We don’t have to be Moses.If we’re willing to look closely enough, we might begin to notice that the world is already alive with meaning.Every bush is burning.Learn more at https://www.sbryson.com