Rocking the Cradle

When God wants to accomplish a great work he often chooses a helpless baby.  He molds and shapes that child and calls that grown man or woman to the work that he has prepared.  Often such people are nurtured by mothers whose hearts are God touched in special ways to impart just what that child will need in the future in terms of words, values and feelings. It is often been said that the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.  But, rocking the cradle is hard work.  While it is not mother's day yet, the power of parenting is illustrated by many Biblical examples.

Jochebed lived during a time of male infanticide while she was a slave in Egypt. Not unlike today where we live in a world where human life is treated as a mere choice rather than something sacred, Pharaoh commanded that all the male children born of the Hebrews were to be cast into the Nile. Exodus 1:22.  She hid her child for 3 months but she could no longer keep him at home. So she placed her infant child, Moses, in an ark made of bulrushes and placed it by a riverbank.  I read a recent story about a modern day village in Africa where villagers kept disappearing.  They organized a search team and discovered a 2500 lb crocodile pictured below.

Can you imagine leaving your infant son along a river with creatures such as these?  But, God was watching.  Pharaoh's daughter found the child and took the baby to the palace and ended up hiring Jochebed to nurse him in his early years. (Exodus 2: 1-10)

In the same manner, Hannah, after much prayer asking God for a son, gave birth to Samuel.  She nursed him until he was old enough to give him back to the Lord for service in the tabernacle.  I Samuel 1:1-28. Elizabeth, in her advanced age, conceived a special child, John the Baptist, and brought him up with a love for God.  Luke 1:5-25.  Timothy was nurtured in the faith by a godly grandmother, Lois, and a mother. (2 Timothy 1:5; 3:15).  These are just a few of the many examples of how mothers instilled in their children the truth of God's revelation which laid a foundation for God to use such people years later.  Solomon said it well: "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." Proverbs 22:6.    The rocking of the cradle needs to be bathed in the sharing of Bible stories and inspiring prayer. Some say that more than half of a person's intelligence and personality are developed by the age of five.  A mother's love is one of the most potent forces of nature on this earth.  Never underestimate the importance of those who rock the cradle.