When I went to the movie theatre to see Breakthrough1, the true story of a young boy who fell through the ice, I was totally unprepared for the emergency room scene. The doctors and nurses had been working on this 12-year-old who had spent 20 minutes in the water and another 40 not breathing on his own. The medical staff finally and sadly declared him dead. The mother comes alone into the room to say goodbye, and she pleads with the God to send the Holy Spirit to breathe life back into her child. Her raw pain and evident love for her son overwhelmed every person in that theatre.
I feel this same desperate love when I read the story of Moses. Exodus 2:1-10 records a mother’s desperation, and the answer is not just miraculous, but laced with God’s loving kindness above and beyond what could be imagined.
The Birth of Moses
2 Now a man of the tribe of Levi married a Levite woman, 2 and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months. 3 But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile.4 His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him.
5 Then Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the riverbank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her female slave to get it.6 She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. “This is one of the Hebrew babies,” she said.
7 Then his sister asked Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?”
8 “Yes, go,” she answered. So, the girl went and got the baby’s mother. 9 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. 10 When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses, saying, “I drew him out of the water.”
The love story between this mother and child begins in verse 2: ‘when she saw that he was a fine child…’ What mother doesn’t think their child is the most beautiful child in the world? This was a time in Jewish history when the midwives had been instructed to slay all male babies at birth. When they chose God’s law over man’s edict, Pharaoh captured all male infants and threw them into the Nile River. Now the Nile River was basically the temple of the crocodile god Sebek. A Nile crocodile is not anything like an alligator, and as someone who has lived along the Niger River, and visited the Florida everglades, that one terrifies me. It was with great trepidation and fear—certainly not a first-choice option–that Moses was gently placed, not to glide down the river but in the rushes on the bank. His sister Miriam watched nearby. I’m sure mom was on her knees imploring God to somehow spare and rescue him. Imagine her joy when he is not only saved but is returned to her. She is actually paid money by Pharaoh’s daughter to nurse her own child. And it gets better. Moses doesn’t initially live in the palace but with his family until he is weaned, anywhere from 3-5 years old.
Is there anything greater than a mother’s love? Is there any greater force than having mom in your corner?
Surprisingly, there is. I was shocked when I first read this verse in Isaiah because my ‘natural’ answer to the question was ‘No, never! A mother’s love is greatest!’ So, when asked if a mother will abandon her breast-fed baby, I’d say there is no way.
Can a mother forget the baby at her breast
and have no compassion on the child she has borne?
Though she may forget,
I will not forget you!
16 See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands;
your walls are ever before me. –Isaiah 49:15,16
Yes! A mother, sadly, can turn and forget the child she has nursed. As unbelievable as it sounds, the greatest force of love is not a mother’s love. “Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.” The love of God in Jesus Christ is written by nail marks in the palms of His hands. Comparison is being used here to amplify just how great God’s love is for us.
We ourselves have 4 girls, 3 of whom were severely neglected and rejected by their birth mom prior to their adoption. This verse makes sense when I think of her. But what about MY love as their mother? I know the depth and breadth of that love and know how I would give my very life to save each and any one of them. But even in comparison to a healthy unconditional mother’s love, nothing matches the love of God for our children. He will not abandon them. He has not abandoned them. They are loved.
You are loved.
My eldest daughter struggles with rejection, abandonment, being pushed aside. My words of devotion to her and unconditional love are not always reassuring—one mom has already let her go, so how is her ‘forever’ mom going to be any different? People do disappoint. People do fail. I fail and disappoint despite my best efforts. For all of us, our hope and our confidence of love and acceptance can only come in these two things:
- Although she may forget, I will not forget you. See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hand and
- As mom, it is from this source that our love flows.
Rest today in the truth that God can take the worst situation and redeem it. Rest today in the truth that His love for you is so great, that He has you engraved on the palms of His hands. Rest in the power of His love flowing through you on those days that are hardest to love others. Recognize that when it is impossible to love, God can love through you. Corrie ten Boom spent years in a concentration camp for helping hide Jews during WW2. Years later the very guard that stripped her sister Betsy and made her stand naked in the freezing cold extended his hand and asked Corrie for her forgiveness. Corrie writes, “When He tells us to love our enemies, He gives, along with the command, the love itself.” We are deeply loved, and when it is hardest to love others, He loves through us.
“See, I have engraved YOU on the palms of my hands.”