What's in your hand?

2 Then the Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?”

“A staff,” he replied.

3 The Lord said, “Throw it on the ground.”

Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it.  4 Then theLord said to him, “Reach out your hand and take it by the tail.” So Moses reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand.  Exodus 4

To sum up the verses briefly: God can do anything!

Do you really think that God didn't know what was in Moses' hand?  That God couldn't see Moses?  It was a rhetorical question.  We see only what's in front of us, but God sees all.  He sees all the things that are, all the things that were, and all the things that will be.  He knew that the staff would become a snake and that upon Moses grabbing the snake, it would turn into a staff again.

I love the part where it says Moses ran from the snake.  That shows two things, first, this was real!  There was no trickery where the light changed and the staff looked like a snake, there was really a snake there when there hadn't been one moments before.  The second is that Moses acted on instinct and didn't trust God.  This will continue to come up throughout the books to come.

Now to apply it to us, we will often see obstacles in front of us, and not know how to handle them.  Yet God sees the differently.  It may not be meant as an obstacle for us, but is really an opportunity for someone near to you to see how you follow God in your life.  We can't always see the entirety of what's going on in our lives, but we need to realize that God has it all in his hands.  No matter what he puts in front of us, whether it be a real snake or a figurative snake, God is still in control.  Our first instinct may be to run but we need to have the courage and faith to reach out and grab the snake when God commands.