A Basket Full of Faith

"A Basket Full of Faith"

Hebrews 11:1-
"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen."

You may have been told "Don't put all of your eggs in one basket." This may be sound investment advice, but what happens if you do exactly that and get blindsided only to loose the very important thing near and dear to you?

This morning, as I was teaching the kids at church I was reminded of this very question. The story we talked about was when Moses was born and the events around that. Here is the story line;

As Pharaoh was in charged he was concerned about how his slave community (the Jews) were growing out of control. As a result of his desire of power he was consumed by fear. As a result he decided to put out a decree to kill all baby boys under the age of three who were of the Jewish community. The rational was that doing so would stop a generation from possibly overpowering the royal family.

Moses's mother was pregnant with him and didn't know what to do. For his protection she decided to make a a basket of reeds and place him in the Nile for hiding. Remember this is a river that has crocodiles if not detected by Pharaoh. One way or another it looked as if death was eminent but the question was when. Then one day Pharaoh's daughter was bathing and heard a noise. She had things looked into and found the baby and called him Moses. Moses's sister, who was standing watch over her little brother was asked to find someone to care for baby Moses and was adopted by the princess. In great irony Moses was given back to his mother to raise him until he was about four or five before he was taken away by the ruler.

Remember that this was not the end of the story as God had bigger plans. He destined to make Moses a leader and deliverer. Moses didn't know that plan nor did his mother.

As I was listening I could not help but think about my kids. Could I relate to Moses's mother? As I thought about that question I could not believe how much I had in common.

Before the past seven years if you spoke to me about my kids, just like any parent, I would have told you that God had great plans for them. What I didn't understand at the time was how great a plan God has for my plans. Through a divorce the dreams I had for them were jeopardized. I put them and my dreams for them in a basket hoping that they would be safe only for those in power to decree them back to me for a short time only to take them away permanently, so they think. I have watched from a distance as my kids have gotten great educations, a nice place to live and be fairly well off as I was left with a bag of confusion, fear and need to have faith in God's bigger plans.

Although my kids's stories are not fully written I can trust that the basket I put them in for what I thought was their safety (their mother) and those in control (the courts) have taken them away, there is one thing I know for sure....His plans are so much higher than mine. I know that just like Moses my kids too will be seeking an understanding of their purpose and come back to their roots to bring restoration and salvation to a circumstance that has looked grim and dismal at best.

Whether you have a wayward child, death in the family or lost everything we had, we can rest assure of this one thing, God will never leave us or forsake us. He will turn our dreams of safe to aspirations of faith. It is in faith that we may not see God move, but we can hold onto His promise of making good into the best. We may not know what the final outcome may be but we can hold onto the fact that God will never leave us or forsake us. We can understand that although we put things we hold so dear into a basket to be hidden from harm, and find that they are taken away, we can see that God will restore that which is gone for His glory and your healing.

CAL