Mothering with guts is similar to COVID-19 situations
CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) has caused many cities, provinces, and countries to lockdown to contain its spread and to pre- vent deaths from happening especially to the most vulnerable populations. It takes guts and wisdom to know how to turn crises like these into something good for our families. We could learn from Jochebed in these trying times.
Jochebed's story (Exodus 2) is worse than our situation, but she turned it to her favor. She and her husband Amram came from the priestly Levite tribe. They were living as slaves in Egypt at a time long after Joseph had saved the Egyptians from sure famine and death with his wise prophetic insight and management skills. Their present reality was that what Joseph did had been forgotten and they were living in harsh slavery in a foreign land that wanted to contain their population. The Egyptian king ordered his people to kill every Israelite newborn son. In that situation, Jochebed gave birth to her youngest son!
Jochebed did not give in to the hopelessness of life in slavery nor to fear (Hebrews 11:23). Her instinct to protect her young enabled her to hide Moses for three months after giving birth to him. How she must have cared for him constantly so he would not cry and make any indication of having a newborn in her house!
Jochebed trusted God and acted with wisdom to protect her son. When she could no longer hide him, she put him in a wicker basket covered with tar and pitch and floated it in the Nile River among the reeds at the time when Pharaoh's daughter was bathing. Pharaoh's daughter heard the child's cry and felt compassion on the child. Moses' sister who followed along to see what would become of her brother immediately offered to get a Hebrew woman (aka the mother) to nurse the child for her. How the situation changed instantly! Now Jochebed was being paid to nurse and raise her son! Not only that, her son also got the best education Egypt had to offer as the son of Pharaoh's daughter!
Jochebed instilled the right values and teaching during Moses' foundational years until he was weaned at probably around age six according to the Egyptian culture. It made such an impact on Moses that despite the longer years being schooled in the wisdom of Egypt, he later "refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt ." (Hebrews 11:24-27).
Jochebed faithfully discharged her motherhood calling to raise leaders God could use to free their people from slavery and lead them. Moses described himself as not eloquent in speaking, but agreed to lead a very stubborn people. His older brother Aaron became his spokesman (prophet) to Pharaoh and also became the high priest of Israel (Exodus 28:1). Miriam also became a prophetess (Ex. 15:20).
I am sure this story of Jochebed's guts and wisdom in facing difficult circumstances has repeated itself in many women's lives. Jochebed had Amram but we have many solo mothers who refuse abortion or give up on their child even if it meant raising the child on their own without the father's support. We have the likes of Justin Bieber's mom Pattie Malette who considered aborting him but her conversion to Christianity kept her from doing so. Or the story of Leonardo DiCaprio who paid tribute to his mom for the sacrifices she made to show him a better life than the rough neighborhood they lived in. We have stories of mothers who gave up their children for adoption to give them a chance for a better future than they ever could. The mothers have remained unknown, but out of these adoption stories, we have a Steve Jobs, who was the co-founder, chairman and CEO of Apple, Inc., a Nelson Mandela, former South African president, and our local beauty entrepreneur Dr. Vicky Belo.
We also have mothers who turned tragedy to triumph by refusing to give in and give up. We have Joyce Smith featured in the movie "Breakthrough" who never accepted a doctor's pronouncement of "vegetable" for her son after being lifeless for an hour from drowning. She believed God and harnessed believing prayer in others to rouse her son back to life and full health in just 16 days! Or the parents of Nick Vucicik who enabled him to adapt to his condition and learn to live independently even without arms or legs, so that he became an inspirational speaker and author traveling the world and having his own family! May these stories show us how to not just survive this crisis, but to turn it for our family's good.