Seen & Set Free

"I have seen. I have heard. I AM."

These are fragments of the words which God spoke to Moses in the burning bush. They are also the same three lines written on dozens of burning bush crafts completed this week at N Church. 

It would have been easy to miss these words. In the one-room church where we held our Bible Club, kids clustered around benches, scrambling over extra sheets of red tissue paper, pin brads, and uncapped markers. But even if someone tapped at my shoulder every other second, I said it everywhere I turned:  

"I have seen. I have heard. I AM."

As I get older, I'm starting to realize this is all I need to hear. So many things can take captive those who Christ can make free. Here we especially see the captivity of financial struggle. Our team hears of a young man's experience living on the streets, or we spot another woman at the end of the day, head in her hands, drooping over a table of unsold snack chips, the wrappers as shiny as aluminum. How can the message of Christ free those in circumstances like this? How can the kids of this county understand that Jesus' sacrifice releases them even from the struggle they were born into?
Maybe if they hear it enough. Maybe if we speak about how God saw and heard his suffering people long ago, they can trust that he does the same today. 

When we finished the Bible Club yesterday, we drove out of the suburb and passed a young boy's house. It was P. He stood outside, the sun hitting his smile. He proudly held up his burning bush. And as he stepped past that crooked mailbox into an open doorway to dinner or no dinner, to lots or little family, I knew the promise was still the same for him.

I have seen. I have heard.

Please pray that the gospel shared during the Kids Club would be impressed in these kids' hearts. Pray for their physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being. Pray that their families might know Christ and receive his liberating grace.

-Ellen