URC Daily Devotion Monday 25th August 2025
The Bright Field
I have seen the sun break through
to illuminate a small field
for a while, and gone my way
and forgotten it. But that was the pearl
of great price, the one field that had
treasure in it. I realize now
that I must give all that I have
to possess it. Life is not hurrying
on to a receding future, nor hankering after
an imagined past. It is the turning
aside like Moses to the miracle
of the lit bush, to a brightness
that seemed as transitory as your youth
once, but is the eternity that awaits you.
R S Thomas © Elodie Thomas
Exodus 3: 1-4
Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. Then Moses said, ‘I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up.’ When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, ‘Moses, Moses!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’
Reflection
It might seem at first glance that the burning bush of Moses and the bright field of RS Thomas are very different things. Moses receives a dramatic sign that God is with him, and hears God speak from the bush. Meanwhile, RS Thomas describes the often-sighted, common-place but fleeting joy of a bright field.
These two very different experiences are linked by the concept of turning aside to look, and so truly to perceive. If Moses had seen the burning bush and simply shrugged and moved on with his father-in-law’s flocks, he would have failed to engage with God. I wonder sometimes whether the burning bush was the first attempt by God to get Moses’ attention – or had Moses already missed the amazing patch of green in the desert, the sun glinting off rocks, the clarity of a desert pool…? But it is in the burning bush that Moses’ attention is caught, so that he turns aside and begins to converse with God.
RS Thomas calls us to focus on what is right beside us, if we are to grasp the truth of God’s presence with us. Thomas also helps us remember Jesus’ parables – of the pearl of great price and of the treasure in the field. When God was alongside us in Jesus he excelled in using the things around to help people perceive God’s kingdom. Longing for the past or yearning for the future will not do us any good. If we want to be attuned to the things of God in this world we need to look, to listen, to attend: to nature, to other people around us, even to be alert in a church meeting.
If we pause today and look at what is around us, we will find that God is waiting for our attention.
Prayer
God who is always beside us,
help us attune our hearts and our lives to your love
so that we may attend to your world
and the ordinary things in it.
So may we find your love beside us
today and everyday.
Amen