What is that in your hand?

This is a story about a stick.
And about a nation that had been slaves for hundreds of years.
It's a post about an unwilling liberator and about the things you hold in your hands.

Enter Moses, political fugitive in the desert after escaping with his life from the tyrant Pharoah, king of Egypt (unfortunately also his step grandad... awkward). Moses was taking his father in laws sheep for a stroll through the wilderness when he caught sight of a bush that was on fire but wasn't burning up and becoming curious he went to check it out...
Read the story yourself in Exodus 3, but in short Moses was assigned by God Himself the task of going back into the melting pot of civilization he'd escaped from and rescuing the nation of Israelites who had been slaves there for 430 years and leading them into the land God had promised to them. No big deal.

But Moses wasn't too chuffed about the idea and gave God a nice big list of reasons why he was not the guy for the job and God should probably just try someone else.
 To which God replies "What is that in your hand?"
Moses looks, "A shepherds staff"

A shepherds staff was a wooden stick, often with a curved top, a tool to help guide and protect the sheep and to support the shepherd. It was something Moses used everyday in his work.
Then God goes onto show him incredible signs and wonders that he would do when Moses used the staff, like turning it into a snake then back into a stick... He tells him that He will do miracles through Moses in Egypt to convince Pharaoh to release the people, even to force them to leave!

After this encounter, Moses heads back home and gathers his wife and kids and puts them on a donkey ready to head back to Egypt (well, probably not ready, but he's going at least). Then there is this little verse... "In his hand was the staff of God".

Somewhere between finding the burning bush and preparing to leave for Egypt, the perspective of Moses changed.... What had been just "a shepherds staff" was now the "staff of God". What happened?
God showed Moses the potential for the tool he already had in his hand. He showed him how what he was using everyday could be used for a purpose much much greater than what it was now.
What had been used to herd sheep would now be used to lead a million captives into their promise.

What do you have in your hand friend?
What tools, gifts, talents, resources and connections do you already hold?
And what would happen if you let God show you the potential they have to bring Him glory and usher in the kingdom of heaven to your world?
Would you see them differently?