“So the woman conceived and bore a son. And when she saw that he was a beautiful child, she hid him three months. 3 But when she could no longer hide him, she took an ark of bulrushes for him, daubed it with asphalt and pitch, put the child in it, and laid it in the reeds by the river’s bank. 4 And his sister stood afar off, to know what would be done to him.
5 Then the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river. And her maidens walked along the riverside; and when she saw the ark among the reeds, she sent her maid to get it. 6 And when she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the baby wept. So she had compassion on him, and said, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children.”
7 Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and call a nurse for you from the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for you?”
8 And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Go.” So the maiden went and called the child’s mother. 9 Then Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child away and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed him.” (Exodus 2:2-9)
In the Bible we often see some demonstrations of a mother’s love. One that I love was when the mother of Moses, Jochebed, out of her love for her boy, defied the edict of the Egyptian Pharoah, protecting her baby’s life for 3 months. What a brave and determined sacrificial love!
God often honors a mother’s love; a love which began in the heart of God Himself and then given to woman. No matter whom neither the woman, nor her circumstances, God’s gift to woman lives there. I want to tell of another mother’s love; my mother, Ruth Idell (Sanders) McCullah.
When I received orders to report for duty in Vietnam, I spent a few days at home with family. I believed I would never see any of them again. I went so far as to write by hand little notes of love expressions to mom, then fold them and hide them in unusual places all over the house. In my mind, she would find them one by one over the course of many years after I was long gone from this world. I had no idea the power of a mother’s determined love bending God’s ear.
While I was still home I went shopping at the former Kmart store in Huntington Beach where they were living. I wanted to buy her a gift that I thought she might appreciate. I found a lighted picture of Christ Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane in a bronze frame. Those who knew her would know that she enjoyed bright and colorful things, and she was a believer in Jesus. I thought she might hang it in her bedroom.
What I did not know was that she hung it in the dining room over her small upright piano, and she never turned the light over the picture out. Every day she would spend some time playing hymns and praying for me (when she was alone, she became brave enough to sing aloud with her playing).
To my surprise I survived 13 months in Nam. She told me later that on the morning I was to arrive back home, that light went out! That told her I was coming. Never underestimate a mother’s determined trust in God through prayer.
Many years after, when mom was diagnosed with fast growing, small cell lung cancer, and given no more than 6 months to live (she lived one month), she sternly looked me in the eye and said, “I do not want you to do my funeral service.” Once again, I saw my mother protecting her boy. Happy Mother’s Day in Heaven Mom!