But God had other plans! I tell you, I’ll forever be grateful for the “But God” moments He so graciously sends along! I’m sure Moses’ sister and Mother were just as thankful the day that Pharoah’s daughter found him floating among the rushes. Moses’ parents had done all they could to avoid the cruel commands of the ruling Pharoah, but eventually the day came when they could no longer hide their baby son. Male children were forbidden to the Hebrew people. The young mother had done all she could to avoid this day, held it off for as long as she was able, but finally, a choice had to be made. Rather than allow the Egyptian overseers to kill her son, she made one last attempt to save his little life. She wove a basket, sealed it with pitch and slime, layed her baby boy in it and deposited it in the river along the shoreline. I’m sure when Pharoah’s daughter opened the basket to find the baby crying, that his weren’t the only tears falling at that moment. As a mother myself, I can take an educated guess that his mother was also crying back home. Would the life of her young son be spared? Would he be eaten by a riverside predator? Would the overseers discover the basket and kill him? Only God could save him now. . .
Sure enough, God had a plan for that small baby boy. A predator did not find him, an overseer did not find him, not even another villager found him. Not only did God choose to save baby Moses’ life, but arranged for the best rearing and education any Hebrew could ever ask for! God restored him to his mother’s side, but this time with wages! Now Moses’ Mom would not only see her son growing up, but earn childcare on top of it! She would hold onto her son loosely however, because eventually he’d finish growing up in Pharoah’s own household as a son to Pharoah’s daughter. But like Hannah centuries later, she would know that God had answered her tearful, desperate prayers, and just like Samuel, Moses would grow up to be mightily used of God among God’s Chosen People.
September was not an easy month for me. Work was slow, but the bills kept coming in. Some bounced and I went over my overdraft protection several times. The mounting penalty fees were eating up funds I owed to the government. September 29th came and things were desperate. I tried everything I could to prevent yet another late set of bill payments. Rent as of the time I write this for September, still has not fully been paid and the difference is being requested with October’s payment in cash. I could hardly pray over my food at dinnertime, bursting into tears with my grown kids around the table looking on. When I came home from choir, funds were sitting in an Interac email for several of my daughter’s October obligations. It was enough to cover the bills I thought would once again be late.
With my health the way it is, the relief was anti-climactic as my body quickly spiraled from relief to rest to depression. This can happen when adrenal glands and other related endocrine organs fail to compensate as needed. So I woke up this morning having slept through a farewell party for a co-worker (oops) and making deliberate time to spend in God’s Word. Even before I found this time today, other funds had finally been released along with a housing supplement coming in, allowing me to pay another bill, bring my tithes up to date for the past two weeks, and have the remainder of the week’s bills covered before this week’s major invoice for last week’s work brings me a cheque. Coupled with a decent night’s sleep, the rest and relief are more stable this morning and I sense gratitude rather than depression.
Just as the Egyptian overseers were out to do in every male child they encountered, I received word this morning of an assault against God’s people and that I was included in that assault. I am grateful for praying friends alerting me to the nature of what I went through earlier. God is in control. I couldn’t fight that battle on my own and God was waiting for me to give up trying so that He could step in and fight it His way. As God would later say to Moses to the people, “stand still and see the salvation of the Lord”!
Today I join Moses’ mother in relief that God saw fit to come through, even though it seemed to us that He came through late, He still came through. God’s ways are not our ways, and His timing is not our timing. He has His reasons why He does things when He chooses and it’s not for us to question. Thank You Lord for coming through. . .
