Exodus 2:5-6: Then Pharaoh's daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her
attendants were walking along the river bank. She saw the basket among
the reeds and sent her slave girl to get it. 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.
Our church has baby dedications once a month. All the parents bring their new babies to the front of the sanctuary and the church gets the honor of praying for the Godly upbringing of the child. Meanwhile, I sit in the pew with my husband 'oohing and aahing' over each little bundle that comes before us. I even go so far as to inquire of my husband if he thinks it would be nice to have another. My husband, knowing that our child-bearing days are gone, agrees that we should definitely keep trying as much as possible.
I often feel that my emotions are common. Doesn't every woman's heart long to hold and cuddle a child? Then I am brought back to reality when I read the news about the mother in Alaska who let her toddlers freeze to death http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/04/alaska-girl-locked-freezing-bedroom-dies_n_1319634.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000008 or in Pennsylvania http://www.wpxi.com/news/news/local/bridgeville-couple-jailed-abuse-charges-baby-suffe/nLSkD/ and after more research, I learn that this behavior is not as uncommon as we would think or hope.
Abortion and murdering of babies was not uncommon in the 1100s BC either. The pharaoh had put a law in place that all first born sons of a Hebrew woman were to be put to death. A pharoah in Egypt was powerful, his family was well cared for - this included his daughter. One day, his daughter went down to the Nile to bathe - who bathes in a river with crocodiles? Maybe that's why she needed the attendants. The Pharoah's daughter saw baby Moses in a basket and took him in to her home. She doesn't turn him over to authorities - even though she knew he was a Hebrew baby. She doesn't have him killed - even though that was the law her father had in place. She takes him as her own and calls him Moses - even though he was not of royal blood.
We don't get to hear much more about the woman who raised Moses, we only see the results of her actions. The man who led the captives out of Egypt under God's direction. We may never see the end results of the effort we take in raising our own children or investing our lives in someone - but God is using the mother, the Sunday school teacher, the AWANA leader, the nurse, the principal, the bus driver . . . in a big way.
