Jochebed (In Memory of Irena Sendler)

Exodus 1:22 - 2:3

Jochebed was the mother of Moses. She lived in Egypt where she and the descendants of Israel were being oppressed. The Pharaoh feared that the Egyptians would be outnumbered so he issued a decree that all the baby boys were to be thrown into the Nile. Jochebed hid her son for three months. The best bad idea she had was to put her son in a waterproofed basket and release him into the Nile. We have the luxury of knowing what happened next.

This story makes me think of the many people throughout the world who have to make incredibly hard decisions with little or no healthy options at hand. This story makes me think of Irena Sendler.

Irena was a social worker and nurse who smuggled 2,500 Jewish children out of the Warsaw Ghetto during World War II. The conversations with parents were heartbreaking. They, like Jochebed, had to entrust their child to the unknown. They had to make a decision whether to hope for the best in the Ghetto, or trust a complete stranger, knowing they might not ever see their child again.

Once Irena successfully rescued a child, she gave them false documents and had them adopted into Polish families or hid them in convents or orphanages. She and her network made lists of the children’s real names and buried them in jars in a garden, so that someday she could find the children and possibly reunite them with relatives.

May we have the courage to find ways to transform darkness into light.