Exodus 2:1-9

Jochebed saw something in her son, Moses, that made her hide her son from the Egyptian death squads that were sent out to kill all newborn males. She was successful at having Moses fed, dry, and content enough that he would not be discovered. However, she knew that, one of these days, the death squads would see something or sense something that would put Moses at risk.

Whatever was special about Moses, Jochebed knew that she needed to release him to that possibility. So, she fashioned a basket and put possibility in it and trusted that God was the initiator of her discerning sight. Moses’ fate was determined by what the water carried him to. As Jochebed set Moses in the water, Miriam, Moses’ older sister, ran along, watching as Moses floated down the banks of the Nile.

Miriam was that Moses was noticed by the daughter of Pharaoh. When Miriam steps out and asks Pharaoh’s daughter if she should find a midwife for Moses, Pharaoh’s daughter says to find someone, and that she will pay them. Now, this possibility, Moses himself, is returned with no need to hide.

Right then, Moses became untouchable; he was protected by divine calling and human covering. If Jochebed had never released Moses, he would have never returned to her under that protection.

Some things that God gives us can never be ours unless we are willing to give them up to Him, potentially forever. Like Jochebed, if we don’t trust God to know better than we do, we may never discover that what we release to God in faith always returns to us better than when we released it.

Many of us have pushed away these possibilities in our lives. We hide and hoard them, but, as we see with Jochebed, these possibilities cannot live if we keep them to ourselves. God is warning us that our possibilities cannot mature unless we are willing to risk and release them to go through the process that God has destined for them.

But the good news is, if we can risk our possibility, God can take our possibilities and return them to us, having breathed upon them and sending them to their own divine potential.