The First Women’s Movement
[Pharaoh’s daughter] saw the basket among the reeds. When she opened it, she saw the child crying, and she took pity on him. “This must be one of the Hebrews’ children,” she said. Then his sister [Miriam] said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I get you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?” – Exodus 2:5-7 excerpted (NRSV)
Persuaded by conspiracy theories that hard-working Hebrew immigrants put his country at risk, Pharaoh ordered Hebrew midwives to kill Hebrew baby boys on the birthing stool. Of course, they refused in the first act of civil disobedience in the Bible. In response, Pharaoh demanded every Hebrew baby boy should be tossed into the Nile.
One mother did as Pharaoh commanded—using a buoyant basket. She floated her baby in the river as Pharaoh’s daughter bathed downstream. The princess looked with pity on the baby. That’s when Miriam, baby Moses’s big sister, appeared. The princess agreed to hire a nurse for the baby who just happened to be their mother! This was seriously good organizing.
Today, the societal violences of racial terror, sexism, queerphobia, and immigrant-phobia may be less obvious than mass murder in the Nile, but the horrors are too real. On this last day of voting, it might be the crafty organizing of women and young people who prevent us from drowning in denial.
Like you, I’m anxious about what will happen today, tonight, and in the days to come. I don’t know how it’s all going to turn out, but I do know this: God moves through women and when women organize into a movement, the world is about to change.
Prayer
Sacred Mother, we don’t know what’s in store, but we know how the story ends. We don’t know what the future holds, but we know who holds the future.
About the AuthorMatt Laney is co-Pastor of Virginia Highland Church UCC in Atlanta, GA and the author of Pride Wars, a fantasy series published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for Young Readers. The first two books, The Spinner Prince and The Four Guardians are available now.