I have four beautiful daughters. Their clothes are all colored pink. Dolls cover every open surface. Their voices are too high for me to understand at times. And then last year we were blessed with a son. And with that my world changed.
Everything I thought I knew was flipped. With daughters you have different worries than you would with a son. You think differently. I would read scripture almost through different eyes. Now with a son I think about things I never really delved into before. For example, this week my middle daughter is learning about Moses as a baby {Exodus 1-2}. I really appreciate the homeschool curriculum we use for this age, Accelerated Christian Education, because they go to great lengths to describe to the little ears what the scene must have been like. As I’m reading to my small child I choke back tears. It was difficult to read and to explain to her that the “man in charge didn’t like God’s people and so he killed all of the little baby boys”. He killed them. For the first time that really soaked in for me. My son wouldn’t have been Moses. He would have been taken from me and drowned. My heart grieves for those women. Did they know that Moses had been kept alive and was in hiding? If they knew {and I doubt they did} were they painfully jealous or did they try to help keep Moses quiet when he cried?
How hard was it for his mother to place him in a handmade basket in a river and to trust her daughter to watch him and keep him safe? Such a heavy burden for such a small child. And when Miriam ran back to tell her mother that the princess now had Moses how did she present that? I imagine that his mother’s heart dropped upon first hearing of her son being in the presence of Pharaoh and then unbelievably lifted when hearing that she was being called upon to raise the baby! She must have fallen to her knees and wept. Full of eucharisteo.
But again, my heart is drawn to the women in mourning. We know the rest of this story. We know how it turns out. But these women didn’t. All they knew was their sons were dead and Moses was now living in the kingdom. They hadn’t yet read the part where he kills an Egyptian {to protect his people} and escapes to a different land. They didn’t read ahead to where mumbling Moses must stand before Pharaoh and demand God’s people be set free {time after time after time}. And they didn’t know that the Egyptian sons were all going to be killed by the hand of God.
Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” {Romans 12:19 ESV}
When we are hurt. When we are crushed in spirit. When our soul is demanding justice. Be patient. No ones vengeance is like God’s. Wait on Him. Hold back your anger and pray for your enemies. Pray for the Lord’s will, not your own. But trust that He will bring justice. And in the mean time…
Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.
{Romans 12:15 ESV}
And pray for the Holy Spirit to comfort those who are in anguish.
Blessings!
