Bluelip

"And Moses said unto God, Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?" Exodus 2:11 The Bible has many stories of prophets and heroes that did not know their role in God's plan until the moment that he needed them. Every story in the Bible deals with God's plan across time. It is sometimes demonstrated by the life of a single man or at times by the passages of a people through history. Moses' life was such a story. His mother's plan of placing the infant Moses in an ark on the river to avoid the Egyptian threat to kill all male Hebrew babies led to his rescue by Pharaoh's daughter. His youth was explained simply in the scripture: "And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son." We can only imagine the lavish life a prince of the court must have enjoyed. This beginning was crushed when Moses, as a young man, lost his temper and killed an Egyptian overseer of the Hebrew slaves. His life was over as he knew it when he fled to Midian to escape Pharaoh's wrath. To end your life as a sheepherder after such a promising start can only be understood by someone who has actually followed a herd of the fragrant creatures. Dust and dung. The point is that God eventually called on Moses from a burning bush to return to Egypt and rescue the Israelites, his people. Moses was uniquely positioned to fulfill this role. Having been a son of the court he was surely known by whomever was still there. At the very least this gave him a path for an audience in the Pharaoh's court that no other accused murderer might have. No guard at the gate remembering the man would dare to act out violently without checking with his commanders first. Moses' entire life was planned by God to give him a special handiness even if he couldn't recognize it himself. He doubted it enough to question God himself about the choice. That is serious doubt in the face of evidence as clear as a burning bush. The story of Moses is one that I have always enjoyed for the idea that our trek through life may be paved by the Lord so that we choose paths that lead us towards his goals. What would that look like today? Bluelip came to life in pondering this question. Collecting a number of books about the African-American experience in early Texas history and traveling the state regularly I came across some people of West Texas whose ancestors were Buffalo Soldiers and American Indian: the Bluelip. The parallel nature of these lives to the story of Moses intrigued me: children of slaves accepted into important and trusted service of the masters. What if a prophet of the Lord were chosen from this history? Could a story be told of prophets whose path was planned across generations coming to fruition in today's highly technological society? Could the ripening of these lives be because God's plan would be demonstrated using our technology? God can number the hairs of our head, part the Red Sea, or bend the flight of a raindrop in it's course at our pleading. He works in his own time, his strength enabling us to further his goals. Bluelip is an effort to shine his light into the shadow of today's world.