Letting Go

Exodus 2


The Birth of Moses

¹ Now a man of the house of Levi married a Levite woman, ² and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months. ³ But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. ⁴ His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him.
⁵ Then Pharaoh's daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the river bank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her slave girl to get it. ⁶ She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. "This is one of the Hebrew babies," she said.
⁷ Then his sister asked Pharaoh's daughter, "Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?"
⁸ "Yes, go," she answered. And the girl went and got the baby's mother. ⁹ Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you." So the woman took the baby and nursed him. ¹⁰ When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh's daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses, ^[1] saying, "I drew him out of the water."

It's been said that a mother is not to lean on, but to make leaning unnecessary.  It's also been said that a mother's lap is the best place from which to launch a life.

But at three months? Isn't that a bit early to begin letting go?

Letting go isn't an action that occurs at high school graduation.  According to Carol Kuykendall. author of Learning to Let Go,letting go is a heart-attitude that begins at birth.  It begins with recognizing that children are a gift from God--and that these children still belong to God.  They are merely loaned to parents for upbringing and nurturing in the Lord.  The process continues with a daily choice to relinquish a child to God's care, God's instruction, God's control.

Letting go means learning early to release our children and applaud each step they take away from us until, at last, they stand on their own with God.