Gut-wrenching
"Now a man from the house of Levi went and married a Levite woman. The woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw that he was a fine baby, she hid him three months. When she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him, and plastered it with bitumen and pitch; she put the child in it among the reeds on the bank of the river."
(Exodus 2:1-3)
The story of Moses is a popular one in the Bible. There are so many aspects of his life that are memorable:
The Burning Bush ("take off your shoes, you're standing on holy ground!")...
The 10 Plagues on Egypt (blood, frogs, hail, darkness, boils, locusts, death of the firstborn, etc.)...
Crossing the Red Sea (ala Universal Studios)...
The 10 Commandments (ala Charlton Heston)...
Manna from Heaven ("what is this white stuff, anyway?")...
The Golden Calf incident (way to go little brother, Aaron!)...
But perhaps the most perplexing/distressing chapter came at the very beginning of his life.
The Egyptian Pharaoh had deemed the Hebrew people a "menace to society." Therefore, said the Pharaoh, every male Hebrew baby born should be immediately killed! Moses' mom (with the help of some God-fearing midwives) hid him for the first 3 months of life. (Can we talk about how hard it must have been to keep a newborn "hidden"?!? They sure to cry a lot!)
The author tells us (Exodus 2:3) that "when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him..." We know the story of Moses as "the baby in the basket," don't we?!? But before we get to that point, let's go back to mom. How gut-wrenching and heartbreaking must it have been to her to get to the point of seriously having to consider abandoning her child? It must have torn her up inside to have to put Moses in a basket in the river - not knowing if he'd live or die!
There are times in our lives when we're faced with very difficult options. At times, NONE of them may seem like ones we're ready to embrace. For Moses' mom, it was let him go (in a river basket) or risk having him killed in her presence! For us, it may involve ending a significant relationship, leaving a job we've held for a long time, choosing to move to a new place, dealing with difficult health choices, etc. Hard choices are, well... HARD!
As Christians, we believe that God is working for good in our lives and in the world around us. Sometimes all e can do is make the best decision available at the time... and then trust God to do the rest. Moses was rescued by Pharaoh's daughter and his own mother even got to care for him in the years that followed (an option she never would have imagined on her own!).
Wow. God is good. All the time. Even when we have to make gut-wrenching decisions.