The yellow sausages are rolling down the highways again. They are stuffed with squirming, energetic students armed with shiny new pencils and clean notebooks with only their names scrawled across the front.
Dressed in new clothes and sporting fresh haircuts they arrive to face a new school year. Moms exhausted from hearing the incessant”I’m bored” push them out the door with mixed emotions.
Hopefully, they have been armed with more than a new box of crayons or the latest iPad.
I pray that their mom was wise and cautious like Jochebed. Wise and proactive because she, like Jochebed, understands the danger that lurks. Wise and proactive enough to build her children a basket, before opening that door.
Jochebed’s child faced a danger that was imminent and obvious…
a law that demanded her son die
alligators
snakes
starving
drowning.
So Jochebed gathered reeds and wove a basket, sealed it with a water proof substance and put here baby in the basket.
An alligator probably isn’t a concern for most mom’s, but today’s child faces imminent danger as well.
We want to believe that they are safe from
Violence
Bullying
Disease
But what about their character. Is it being eroded?
Virtues like:
Respect
Kindness
Confidence
Sexual purity
And is their faith being stripped like a football from a runner’s hand?
Mamas and Daddies, and Grandparents, please realize children still need a basket.
Not made of reeds and tar, but a basket of faith and prayer and diligent guidance.
They need a strong confidence that-
You love them and you like them. (They need to feel it, not just hear it.)
They are loved and treasured by God.
The Bible is true.
Their most vital relationship and best friend is Jesus.
And I’ll limit this list to two quotes from Ann Voscamp’s post.
“Realize the only life worth living is the scandalous one: scandalous love, offensive mercy, foolish faith.”
“Be okay with not being liked: life’s about altars not applause.”
Now maybe you’re thinking my kids are grown…
my grandchildren are grown…
my basket building days are over…. Hallelujah!
NOT SO FAST.
You’re not off the hook that easy.
There is one more person in this story that is critical to it’s success.
She was hidden. No one knew she was there.
Not in a place that most of us want to be.
It was a little scary…the thought of snakes come to my mind.
And scratchy. Reeds have sharp edges. I know. I love to gather cattails.
Not playing a role most of us want to play. She just watched and waited.
Sounds like a place of prayer to me.
And regardless of whether you have children or not…
or grandchildren or not…
or even if you know a kid in school or not…
you need to be a Miriam that watches.
Not a complainer
Not a blamer
Not an accuser
but a prayer.
You watch to pray.
When you pass a school you pray for the school.
When you pass a big yellow school bus, you pray for the driver and the students on the bus.
When you see a child, pray for them.
How do you pray?
First of all, pray that if they don’t know Jesus, that they will come to know Him as their Lord and Savior.
Pray that God will protect them from the lies of Hell, from violence, from disease and they will grow in the grace of God.
Ask God to tell you what you should pray and then do it.
Believe God to answer that prayer. Thank Him!
This is a way that all of us can live out Ann Voscamp’s outstanding insight:
“The only life worth living is the scandalous one: scandalous love, offensive mercy, foolish faith.”