Reflecting on Mothering Sunday on Exodus 2:1-10
“Every boy that is born,
throw them into the Nile”
The empire decreed to
contain the slaves,
Moms were fighting death
to deliver their sons,
Only to deliver them into
the hands of death,
The shape of the water was
the shape of a new grave
Streams flowing, were
streams burying,
Tears flowing as babies crying,
Parents crying as babies thrown
to drowning,
No human came to stop such
inhuman act,
No saviours yet to save those
little babies wet.
Who said saviours don’t come
from mothers,
Sisters, daughters, aunts,
cousins and those ‘others’?
There comes a mother
courageous, shrewd,
creative, daring, loving, to
save her child,
hides him for three months
dressing in pink,
weans him and plans him
not to sink,
then places him in a tarred
basket to float on waters,
turning water graveyard to
waters of life.
A saviour did come in a
mother,
Saving a saviour and all
the others of his kind.
Who said saviours don’t come
from mothers,
Sisters, daughters, aunts,
cousins and those ‘others?’
There comes a sister
Miriam, loving, caring,
Intelligent, smart, watching
his brother’s life
Float on waters, that’s sucking
life to death.
On finding that he was drawn
by a princess,
She brings a mother to the
child convincing the royal woman,
A mother of her own child
now hired to be
Raise a child of her royal
princess.
A saviour did come in a
sister,
Saving a saviour and all
the others of his kind.
Who said saviours don’t come
from mothers,
Sisters, daughters,
cousins and those ‘others?’
There comes a royal daughter,
whose dad was cruel,
Yet she comes with a heart
full of compassion,
Risking to save her slaves
child, willing to mother him,
Naming him ‘Moses’, for
she drew him out of waters of death,
Knowing not that this
child will lead a nation to freedom of life.
A saviour did come in a
daughter,
Saving a saviour and all
the others of his kind.
Who said saviours don’t come
from mothers,
Sisters, daughters, aunts,
cousins and those ‘others?’
There comes an aunt, another
slave girl of his kind,
Working as a servant to
her royal princess,
Who dared the currents of
the water to fetch this basket,
A basket of life amidst
the waters of death,
Skilfully drawing him to
the shores,
placing him in the hands
of a new mother, the princess,
sensing that this little bundle
of life will channel a breath of new life to her people.
A saviour did come in an
aunt,
Saving a saviour and all
the other of his kind.
Who said saviours don’t come
from mothers,
Sisters, daughters, aunts,
cousins and those ‘others?’
God knits the basket of
life, by knitting people who we think
Cannot be saviours, moms,
sisters, daughters, aunts, cousins,
God’s mothering is to knit
life using the ordinary,
God’s mothering stands for
life amidst the waters of death,
Defeating death and
liberating people to life
Inviting us to channel
life in our times filled with lifelessness.
So look out for a saviour
among the ordinary and unthinkable,
Look for a saviour from mothers,
sisters, daughters, aunts, cousins and those ‘others,’
Treating them as equals,
respecting and loving them in our fullest.
rev. raj patta
@Mothering Sunday 2018
Picture courtesy:
https://treasureboxmy.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/bible-people-jochebed.html
