Dear you, You kind and loving family member, friend, stranger!
Here’s a letter to you, whoever you are:
Back in Botswana I learned a lot from Genesis and Exodus both, but specifically Exodus.
Feeling like Miriam right now.
You’re probably wondering who on this wild earth is Miriam.
I read about Miriam about a month ago and I am still completely inspired by her.
She’s mentioned in Exodus 15 in only three verses (19-21).
Funny how powerful words are, how about three sentences can take you into another world and totally inspire you, maybe even change your entire life.
Preface to these verses: Egypt had enslaved the Israelites for about 300 years. They were treated with immense brutality and injustice (not unlike slavery in American history) and were forced to commit their lives to the work of whichever Pharaoh was reigning at the time. Forced manual labor, segregation, neglect- you get the picture.
While all of this is going on, a new king came to power in Egypt. He saw that the Israelites were growing in their numbers and, like many evil leaders of our world have done for centuries, he acted out of fear. This king was nervous that if a war were to ever break out, the Israelites were so great in number that they’d ruin the Egyptians by joining forces with Egypt’s enemies.
So, he gripped their throats even tighter than ever before and made orders to attempt to control their population by telling midwives “if you see that the baby is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live” (Ex 1:16).
But guess what these midwives did?! They risked their jobs and ultimately their lives by delivering all of the babies- what WOMEN OF GOD!! They rose up in the name of God, standing for justice! Women. They’re impactful.
Pharaoh did not understand why all of these children were continually being born regardless of his oppression and orders to kill. His rage was fueled. He told the Egyptians that if they saw any Hebrew (same thing as Israelite) baby boys, they must throw them in the Nile River. Evil. Disgustingly and horrifyingly evil.
Mothers all over were in deep distress, wailing for their murdered little boys. A woman (her name is never mentioned, wishing I knew it) had a baby boy. She deeply cared for her child and wanted him to experience the gift of life- she couldn’t do anything but hide him- hide her baby boy from the men of Pharaoh. “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” (Ex 2:3). The babe’s older sister hid on the shore of the Nile, within the reeds off the bank, and she watched to see what would happen to her little brother. I can’t imagine the anxiety within her little heart. What she saw she could’ve never guessed.
She saw the Pharaoh’s daughter wading into the water to bathe. The princess told her attendants to fetch the basket that was caught in the reeds, curious to see what on earth could be inside. I can just picture the shock and surprise painted across her face as she found a Hebrew little boy crying and cooing inside the mystery basket floating close by. When he started crying, her heart was softened for him.
His sister shot out from her hiding spot and offered to go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for her (brilliant! so, insanely brilliant of her!!). Pharaoh’s daughter instantly said “Yes, go!” She even offered to pay the baby’s mother for nursing him. When the babe grew older, his mother took her little boy back to Pharaoh’s daughter. Can’t imagine how hard that would be- not only sacrificing your baby to a stranger, but sacrificing your baby to the source of your people’s oppression’s daughter. Makes me sick. But she knew it’d save her boy, so she gave him up.
The Pharaoh’s daughter named him Moses.
I could say a whole lot about Moses, but I’ll sum it up with this: he murdered an Egyptian after seeing him badly abuse one of Moses’ people, an Israelite. After he murdered the slave-master, Moses ran from Egypt after Pharaoh heard of the murder and attempted to kill him. He ran hard and he ran fast. He ended up finding himself on a kind man’s land and the kind man gifted Moses with not only a feast, but one of his daughter’s as a bride too. Moses kept the fact that he was the son of the royal family of Egypt a secret for years and years as he built a life in a new land. Then all of the sudden God ruined Moses’ peace and quiet with a burning bush. God spoke to Moses through a bush that was on fire- strange, I know, I know. In short, God told Moses that He had heard the agony and horror of the Israelite people and He needed someone to lead an Exodus to save them. Moses was the one God chose. After Moses threw excuse after excuse at God for why he was inadequate to lead the nation he ran from’s fight for freedom, Moses eventually obeyed, speech impediment and all (don’t worry though, God is kind and gave Moses a helper named Aaron who’s job was to do all of the speaking; seriously, our God is kind). The two of them, Moses and Aaron, leave all that they love- their lives and homes and jobs and loved ones, and head to Egypt. Leaving tons of details aside, Pharaoh is a shocking kind of evil with a heart so brutal and so hard he denies the Israelites their freedom at the expense of ten plagues worth of unimaginable, unspeakable atrocities.
Then, FINALLY, Pharaoh let’s God’s people go!
But then Pharaoh changes his mind very shortly after he releases the three hundred year reign of oppression of the Israelites and decides to chase them down with a full army of the largest horses and chariots within his kingdom. Moses, Aaron, and the freedmen and women look back to see this nightmare running after them. They revert to distress and fear until God speaks to Moses and says, “The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still” (Ex 14: 14).
And then the unimaginable happened: Moses lifted his staff and pounded it down on the sandy shores of the Red Sea in the name of God and the Sea parted before the Israelites, making a safe passage for every single man, woman, child, and animal Moses was leading onward. HOW INSANE! The glory within all of this is so immense I can barely wrap my mind around it all.
And now we meet Miriam.
This is how it goes:
“When Pharaoh’s horses, chariots, and horsemen went into the sea, the Lord brought the Israelites walked through the sea on dry ground. Then Miriam the prophet, Aaron’s sister, took a timbrel in her hand, and all the women followed her, with timbrels and dancing. Miriam sang to them:
‘Sing to the Lord,
for He is highly exalted.
Both horse and driver
he has hurled into the sea.'”
What I wrote in the margins of my bible after reading this the first time: “Miriam: Influential. All of the women followed her. A Worshiper! She is quick to respond to the Lord’s goodness with song and dance! Instant responder- how I should be, how God’s children should all be.” There’s this deep, insane beauty about Miriam. I thank God for Miriam! She carries a habit of thanksgiving; this habitual thankfulness is so ingrained within who she is that once her feet hit the other side of the shore, once her feet stood on the solid ground of safety, she couldn’t think to do anything but joyously break out into a spontaneous song and dance! Not only did she do so, but she led all of her sisters into her joy with her. I don’t know if what I’m picturing is anything close to the reality of it all, but it’s an overwhelmingly beautiful image of triumphant thankfulness.
And here I am, feeling like Miriam.
As I am fully funded and have been immensely supported in the months leading up to the World Race and even still as I’m actually living this Race out, I can’t relate my emotions to anything but Miriam.
SOUND THE TRUMPETS!
STRIKE UP THE BAND!!!
Grab your tambourines, friends! I can’t help but dance right now! I can’t help but sing this song within me- the one that comes so naturally, so organically because of LIFE (& the creator/giver of this wild life), all that it is and holds in this moment!
God has provided and will continue providing. I have said this during and after any experience I have ever had that required raising support and I’ll say it again and again and again: God shows me ineffably beautiful aspects of His character through generosity. Generosity is the tangible evidence of God. I’m not being religious or esoteric; I believe that the simultaneous love and confidence in the hearts of people who give in any capacity (monetarily or emotionally, large or small) is an undeniable testimony of our God. How free are the hands of those who openly give!!! A posture of open-handedness: what a breathtaking thing…something about it that’s so counter-cultural, it makes you stop in awe and wonder for a moment.
I say all of this to express that it was an honor and a blessing to be an instrument in receiving the gifts of support for months now. I received so that I can give; I am/will give and communities will receive; after they receive, there’s an exciting potential that individuals that had once received will then give the hope that they have found! It’s never-ending!! INVIGORATING! My heart is beating out of my chest right now. The thankfulness within me is overflowing!
Thank YOU! In every language, I want you to know and feel this thankfulness that I have for you.
The process of fundraising has left my life unalterably changed for the better.
I’ll end this how Paul ends Ephesians, “Peace to the brothers and sisters, and love and faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love.”
Incredible amounts of love,
Lillabea
ps- do something daring today
