Baskets (1/2)

Picture this: a woman, a basket. A slow river, lined with reeds. This woman stands at the bank, looking down at this basket she holds in her hands. She knows she must let it go, but the pain of it weighs heavy on her heart. It feels like a piece of her is being torn away. The woman now squats, placing the basket slowly into the water. As she lets go, muffled cries are heard coming from inside the basket. The woman does nothing, there is nothing she can do now. The basket is gone, it floats steadily down the river. Floating away, away, away; it disappears from the woman’s sight. The woman now turns away, letting the tears and sorrow she once reserved flow freely now.

Sound familiar? Most of us have heard this story found in Exodus 2. Moses’ mom had to place him in a basket when he was a baby and release him down the Nile river. The context of that story is that Pharaoh had given an order for every Hebrew boy that was born to be thrown into the Nile because of how greatly the Israelites who were living in Egypt were increasing. He was scared that they would become so numerous that they would overpower the Egyptians and leave the country. Moses’ mom was able to hide him for three months, but eventually she realized she couldn’t hide him anymore. Thus, the basket situation. 

Ok, let’s put a pin in that story. I’ll come back to it in a second, I promise. 

The future: it’s a big, scary, ominous thing most people my age (and honestly, all ages) struggle with. The questions, the options, the unknowns – they’re uncomfortable and  unnatural to us as humans. We want answers and we want them now. In a time in my life where most people around me are figuring out their next steps for their futures, I’ve struggled with not knowing my own and not knowing all the answers. 

About a month ago, our mentor Madie was here in Costa Rica visiting our squad, seeing how we were doing, seeing what life was like for us, and just encouraging us in our first month overseas together. Around this time, the Lord brought up dangerous prayers (yes, again) and encouraged me to pray some over myself. He encouraged me to pray for clarity in my next steps for the future by the end of the week. 

Yikes.

 I know, that’s exactly what I said. 

Often, Madie will have signups for “one-on-ones”, which are just times to have intentional conversation with her so she can see where we’re at individually. In my one-on-one with her, I brought up how the Lord was leading me to pray over clarity in my future.

That’s when Madie gave me this visual tool that was incredibly helpful for me.

Here, we come back to that story of the woman, the basket, and the river. If you read on in Exodus 2, Moses is followed down the river by his sister. Then, the basket is found by Pharaoh’s daughter, who then gives the basket back to Moses’ sister so that she can find a Hebrew woman to nurse him. Of course, Moses’ sister brings Moses back to his mom! A full-circle, redemptive kind of moment. Moses’ mom had to let him down the river in order to get him back. She couldn’t keep him, it would have been far too dangerous for both her and her child. In an act of desperation and total surrender, she releases him down the river in that basket. In this act, she was placing her sweet baby son into the Lord’s hands.

Madie highlighted how this surrender, this release, is exactly what I needed to do with my future options or plans. Taking each one, letting it go down the river, and placing it in His hands. Once we do this, we can trust the Lord with them. He may return something to us, just like he returned Moses back to his mom, or he may returning nothing to us at all; either way it’s out of our hands. 

She encouraged me to get with the Lord and do this. In whatever capacity that looked like for me, whether it’s drawing a picture, verbally letting each one go, or just picturing it in my head. This visual tool was honestly revolutionary for me. Rather than just saying, “I surrender my future plans” this was super intentional and seemed like it would let me hand specific things over to the Lord that had been stewing in my head for quite a while.

The same day, I sat with the Lord to do that very thing. In my next blog, I’ll talk about what it looked like for me, it was such a fruitful time and the Lord moved so tangibly!

See you in the next post, 

Emma

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