Prophetic Points to Ponder III

“… she placed the child in the papyrus basket and put it among the reeds…” Exodus 2:3

Amram, Moses mother, loved her son to such an extent that she intentionally positioned him to be caught up in the house of her enemy. He was captured – drawn out of the waters – and was immediately baptized in the most progressive civilization in the world. He learned its arithmetic, its poetry, and its magic; even became a general in its military. He became a learned dignitary, “educated in the wisdom of the Egyptians and powerful in speech and action.” (Acts 7:22)

One would think Moses’ exposure to this hardened, poly-theistic culture would have ruined him. Yet it became the very springboard for his future call to ministry. Through his loving mother, God placed this infant prophet into the very heart of Egypt – the same Egypt from which he would one day return, rescue, and deliver His children and lead them to the Promised Land.

Herein lies a powerful foreshadowing of the ministry of Christ. Like Moses, Christ was intentionally released from Love’s Arms and positioned to be captured – drawn from the waters of Mary’s womb, if you will – to live, learn, and grow into the baptism of this fallen world, that he would one day rise and become its Everlasting Redeemer.

It is never God’s final intent to place us in Egypt, to lean its arithmetic, its poetry, and its magic, for Egypt’s sake alone. If that were the case the Church would evolve into a spineless amoeba of stealthy chameleons, sold out to a system governed by the prince of darkness. No, we have a much higher call – a call that, like the Presence of God on Sinai, transcends time and space and trumpets forth the Heart of Matter. We are only passing through. True, we live in the world, but we are not of the world. Like Moses (and like Jesus) we have been positioned from above to proclaim the testimony of the One with whom we’ve met on the mountain.

Holy Father, as Amram sent her son Moses into a foreign culture and as you sent Jesus into the world of your redemption, so too have you positioned us to live with the people you so dearly love. Give us such an awareness of your mission in the world that we would never loose site of the higher call, the call we heard at our Transfiguration, the call to evangelize the world with the Good News of Christ Jesus. It is in his Name we pray. Amen.