Dear Jemima,
Here we are, already marking 5 months of life with you! It is wonderful to see how fully you have become a part of the warp and woof of everyday living, and we love you so!
This month...
- You have developed an absolutely delightful belly laugh! You seem a bit ticklish, particularly in the knees and under your chin (where you also have a bit of a sad rash, due to being continually moist...). You also respond with giggles to peek-a-boo and most any enthusiastic hello from a brother / friend / passerby.
- You're filling up the 6 month clothes and growing all the time! We all love your dimples and chubs.
- Nights are a mixed bag, meaning you will wake up to eat sometime during the night, but it could be anywhere between midnight and 6am. And once you've eaten, I put you in your carseat to sleep, so that we can move you into the bedroom when Daddy and I get up in the morning, and you'll keep snoozing typically until 8 or 9am.
- You've been doing SO GREAT at homeschool co-op and church! Both locations we typically eat a little, bundle, turn on the white noise (it travels with us!), and then you take a really solid morning nap. That revives and refreshes you so that it's no problem to make it through the rest of the morning, til we get home for a nice long afternoon snooze. I am so thankful for the Lord's kindness in this. I wasn't sure how you would do with the rigors of our busy days, and it has been a marvelous answer to prayer!
- You still spit. I've been trying to change your outfits a little more often (to get rid of that chin rash), so we are getting to try out more of your cute clothes! We have been gifted so many beautiful little girl clothes...
The past few days I've been ruminating a lot on Exodus 5-6, where Moses makes his first approach to Pharaoh, declaring that he should let God's people go. And in response, Pharaoh not only refuses but also makes life far more horrible for the enslaved people of God. The people are desperate. Moses is despairing. It looks like God is not oblivious to their trouble (after all, He just revealed Himself to Moses in the burning bush!) but worse, God is responsible for everything getting more hopeless and hard.
Why would God write the story this way? Why doesn't He just liberate His people in a cloud of glory dust, with everyone singing and dancing on their way to freedom?
I'm sure the reasons are more multifaceted than I can grasp, but a few things are sure.
God was not just delivering His people from the oppression and slavery of hard masters. He was delivering them from lesser hopes, from the delusion that Moses might be the solution to their problem or that they might receive redemption based on being a really attractive, appreciative people toward their God.
No. These chapters serve to throw over all hope in Moses as a rescuer. He has been triple rejected by the people of Israel. And the people themselves aren't even crying to God for help; they go to Pharaoh and are rebuffed for their efforts. If rescue would come, it would come despite them, not because of something they did.
What good news for those of us who are not beautiful, gifted, or strong. God doesn't save us because of us. Our hope is not anchored in good circumstances, good luck, or a good day. God's decision to put His faithful covenant love on us, to redeem us at the cost of His own Son, and to make us His own people doesn't depend on us, it is because of who He is. And that is unchangeable, unshakable, unbreakable.
Exodus 6:7 says, "I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out."
What the Israelites needed more than immediate rescue was to truly know the God who would the their God to the end. That's what we need too, little girl. Not improved circumstances. Not greater freedom or better leaders. Ultimately, we need to know God. And He has done everything that needed to be done so that we may draw near to Him and be His people forever. He has done it at the cost of His own Son.
What a great Redeemer! May you walk close to Him all the days of your life.
I love you, my sweet Jemma.
Momma
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