God said, “Do not come any closer. Take off your sandals, for the place you are standing is holy ground.” Exodus 3:5. NIV

In the never ending parade of thoughts that present themselves to us, themes reappear. A lifelong theme for me has been the idea of holy ground. My first encounter with this was as a small child when encountering an illustration of Moses and the burning bush.

As a pre-literate, pre-focused pre-schooler, church services were a challenge. After my under pew examination, noting the temperature of the floor with my cheek, drawing the monsters I saw in my closet the previous night and examining my dad’s fingernails, I would look through the pictures in my mom’s Bible.

The picture that captivated me (the way I saw it was probably nothing like the actual picture) was Moses with a curly mane of black and gray hair and a scruffy beard. He looked both curious and scared, clutching his staff, standing with legs spread and braced for something big. The ground beneath him fascinated me more. It was the very top of the mountain, rough with a pink glow that looked like rose quartz with a roaring fire beneath. I imagined it both hot and cool at the same time. I didn’t know it at the time, but this was my first encounter with awe.

My childhood walks through a nearby woods consisted of scouting for burning bushes. I never found any but gradually I realized that all I had to do was visualize the picture and a sense of sacred awe flooded my mind. God was big and mysterious. Did God create holy ground in my soul?

As I sit with clients in my office, and a life changing insight emerges it feels like an epiphany–an appearance of God. The room feels like holy space. Human meets God.

All my life I have looked for spaces of God in high concentrations. As the men on the road to Emmaus declared, “Were not our hearts burning within us?”, my burning heart seems to be a Geiger Counter indicating holy ground, whether in the inner or the outer world.