Time To Let Go

As I watched my daughter pull out of the driveway to go to graduate school 3000 miles away, my heart broke. I cried over this new season of life. I was excited for her but the concerns over her future crept in. I had to trust God with one of my most precious commodities - my child! God brought to mind Ecclesiastes 3: 1, 6, “There’s an opportune time to do things, a right time for everything on the earth:...A right time to hold on and another to let go,...” (MSG) My child had left home and began a life for which God prepared for her. It is life’s natural order for childhood to end and Mike and I had prepared her for this time.

Jochebed was a Biblical mother who knew Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, had ordered all Hebrew baby boys be killed. Exodus 2: 3, “But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile.” I cannot imagine how Jochebed must have felt. Her tiny baby was in a hippo, rhino, snake and crocodile infested river! At this same time, God orchestrated, Pharaoh’s daughter, the princess, to be bathing further up the Nile. We are told in Exodus 2: 5, “Then Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the riverbank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her female slave to get it.” The princess was drawn to the baby. Jochebed had sent Moses sister, Miriam, to hide and watch what would happen. Bravely, Miriam approached Pharaoh’s daughter and offered to get a Hebrew woman to nurse the baby. The princess accepted and Miriam fetched her mother-- who was also the baby's mother. She was paid to nurse her son! God perfectly timed every detail! He had something better than anything we could imagine!

God had a plan and a purpose for Moses. He grew up to become one of the heroes of the Bible - the one who freed the Hebrew people from slavery and lead them to the edge of the promised land. We know little about Jochebed except her trust in God. She knew God loved her child even more than she did and she would later see God's plans fall into place.

God will bring us comfort and peace as we acknowledge that He is always in control and ever present in our children’s lives….even we we can not be. Psalm 62: 8, “Trust in him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge."