“Then his sister asked Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?” “Yes, go,” she answered. And the girl went and got the baby’s mother. Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you.” So the woman took the baby and nursed him.” (Exodus 2:7-9 NIV84)
It never ceases to amaze me how multi-layered God can be with a single act. In the act of Pharaoh’s daughter rescuing the Hebrew baby boy in the basket, He tried to show Pharaoh how wrong his current perspective was. But God knew that it was not just any boy that had been rescued. It was a boy that, 75 years later, God would use to miraculously redeem His people. Those two layers alone are enough to make our heads swim and our faiths swell. But God didn’t end there. God had compassion for the brokenhearted mother who left her baby boy adrift on the Nile. God made it so the boy was returned to his mother until he was weaned. God put it back to the way it ought to have been. God defied the decree of Pharaoh that all baby boys should be killed in the Nile through the compassion of Pharaoh’s own daughter and then returned the child back to his mother to be cared for. She now was able to do for her son what was just the day before illegal to do in Egypt. What a God we have!
Do you think it is only in these biblical events that these things take place? Do we think that God could/would never do something like this in our lives? Think again! What about redemption itself? What about the fact that we are the benefactors of a love, grace and forgiveness that we do not at all deserve. How about the fact that all that was won for us by the divine irony of God having to sacrifice Himself. The holy became profane so we might be holy. And if this isn’t enough, I bet each of us can look into our past and see, with the right set of eyes, that God has ironically used painful experiences in our lives to bring us His grace.
May we be challenged to find the grace of God even in the most difficult times of our lives. Just as it was there for Moses’ mother, it is there for you and me.
Peace!
Pastor Tom
www.firmlyrooted.church