Do you like to fish? My wife likes to fish more than I do. I can fish for about fifteen minutes and then I’m done. She can stay the course and watch the water and wait to see what happens for half a day. She says it’s relaxing… I lose focus. She can watch and wait to see what happens. There is a wonderful element of faith in watching and waiting.
In the birth story of Moses, found in Exodus 2, there is some of this going on.
“Now a man from the house of Levi went and took as his wife a Levite woman. The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months.” When she could hide him no longer, she took for him a basket made of bulrushes and daubed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and placed it among the reeds by the river bank.
Can you imagine the faith involved in putting your baby in the Nile and waiting and watching to see what happens? This mother and big sister did just that though.
I can see them on their knees as they sent the basket into the Nile with baby Moses in it. His mother may have continued in prayer or trusted in God so much that she went on her way. But big sister… she couldn’t stand it. She had to stay and watch and wait, and she saw a Paul Harvey right in front of her. She saw “the rest of the story”. “And his sister stood at a distance to know what would be done to him.”
It paid off… the watching and waiting helped lead to a miraculous outcome. Read what happened.
“Now the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her young women walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her servant woman, and she took it. When she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the baby was crying. She took pity on him and said, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children.” Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and call you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?” And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Go.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother.”
How often do we have the patience, faith, and trust to wait and watch? I’ve wondered about the father in all of this, however, that’s for another day and I won’t chase that rabbit.
God put big sister in just the right place to share just the right words as they lived out their part in Gods continuing story. “And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child away and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed him. When the child grew older, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, “Because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.”
Out of the water he came. What a fishing story. May we have some of that same faith, patience, and trust in our God, as we wait and watch and live into God’s continuing story.
– Rev. Joe Hodges, Edmond Campus Associate Pastor
