Come Up To Me......Be There!

Reading Through the Bible in 2010 (Ex. 23-25)

"Then the Lord said to Moses, "Come up to Me on the mountain and be there;" Ex. 24:12

I love my screen saver! I have it set on "beaches." It flashes the most beautiful ocean pictures across the face of my computer. Palm trees, vast expanses of vivid blue water, white sandy beaches without one piece of litter, and, of course, no clouds - only sun, Every picture has the most awesome light.

This morning I was gazing at the screen longingly when the phone interrupted my reverie.

"Mom," my daughter's voice interjected into my thoughts, "Mom," she said. "I've just got a minute but I have a question. Have you seen the sun in Wisconsin in the last week? We haven't seen it in Illinois since I left your house two weekends ago!"

"Hmn," I replied. "Good question! I think we saw it for about two hours on Wednesday. But then it went under the clouds again. At least it went somewhere. It sure hasn't been back."

"Well," she said, "I was just wondering. Have a good day in the gloom. I'm off to exercise. I guess that's where I'm supposed to be right now."

After she hung up, I glanced at my screen. The beach had disappeared, As I clicked it back on, I thought about our conversation.

"Exercise," I thought. "If the sun were shining and I was on that white sand, I would really feel like exercising. But in dull grey Wisconsin, I don't want to get on my dull grey treadmill!"

Don't we always want to be somewhere else? Sometimes it seems like it requires so much effort and discipline to be in the places where we're supposed to be.

The Lord told Moses to come up to Him on the mountain and be there. Moses had to climb up the whole mountain, God didn't even offer to come down and meet him halfway. He just said, "Be there!"

When Moses finished the strenuous climb, was there an awesome "top of the mountain view?" Actually, a cloud rested on the mountain. A cloud that covered the mountain for six days. On the seventh day, God called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud. The glory of the Lord was right there in the midst of the cloud. God talked to Moses on Mt. Sinai for forty days and forty nights. A lot of Exodus is about what God gave him those days in the cloud.

Where has God called you to be? Maybe you're looking around and thinking, "There's a thick cloud around me. Could I leave and go to the beach?"

But when God has said, "Come to Me..be there." We need to be there. Right where He's called us to be. Today may be the sixth day. Tomorrow could be the seventh day - the day the "Son" will appear in all His glory.