Read: Exodus 2:1-10
She took for him a basket made of bulrushes. (v. 3)
“Pull yourself up by your bootstraps” has become an American proverb exhorting people to advance themselves through their own efforts. Ironically, the phrase was first used in an 1800s textbook on physics to show that it’s impossible for a person to lift themselves by pulling on their boots. We should certainly work hard to improve our lives, but none of us are the fruit of our efforts alone. We all need somebody.
Consider Moses. He is a critical person in the salvation story of Scripture. He led the Israelites out of centuries-long slavery in Egypt, gave the people God’s word in the law, and navigated 40 years in the desert on the way to Canaan. When Jesus was transfigured before the disciples in Matthew 17, Moses appeared with Jesus and Elijah. He worked hard and accomplished much! But in that basket on the Nile, infant Moses was most vulnerable, completely unaware of the hands that saved him.
It took the faith of his mother to place her baby in a basket. It took the mercy of Pharaoh’s daughter to have pity on the child. It took the quiet courage of his sister Miriam to watch from a distance, then venture to speak as a daughter of a slave to the daughter of a king. Without these three, Moses was another Hebrew baby lost to Pharoah’s rage. We all need somebody. Who did God place in your life to put you in their basket? Thank God for them today.
As you pray, thank God for people who cared for you.
Rev. Jon Opgenorth serves as president of Words of Hope. Previously, he served for 18 years as senior pastor at Trinity Reformed Church in Orange City, Iowa. In preparation for ministry, he received a BA in Religion from Northwestern College, and an MDiv from Fuller Theological Seminary.
