Compassion International

Compassion International

Pharaoh’s Daughter

Read: Exodus 2:5-10

Courtney smiled as she opened the envelope and studied the crayon drawings. In a couple of years, Pedro would be able to write letters that would be translated and sent to her. Until then, she received updates on his life from the agency. As Courtney stuck a drawing on the refrigerator, she gazed into the large brown eyes of the smudged face that had stirred her compassion at first sight. How she wished that she could sponsor all the children on Compassion International’s Web site. But at least she knew that her thirty-two dollars a month made a world of difference in one child’s life.

The Egyptian princess in Exodus 2 also showed compassion for a child of another race. One day, when she went to bathe in the Nile River as usual, she found a little basket floating among the reeds. Imagine her surprise when she opened it and found a baby boy. The princess knew instinctively that the baby boy was one of the Hebrew babies marked by her father for destruction. The doomed infant’s cries wrenched her heart. She defied the pharaoh’s edict and lovingly adopted the boy as her own son.

The Bible says that God “showers compassion on all his creation” (Psalm 145:9). That compassion moved him to lay down his life for a sinful world. Believers are now called to lay down their lives in love and service for others. The Christian life demands more than expressions of sympathy and promises of prayer; it requires compassion in action. If we see people in need and we have the means to help them, God expects us to demonstrate our love in more than words. We can’t help every needy person in the world, but we can show compassion for whomever God floats down the rivers of our lives.

If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion—how can God’s love be in that person?

1 John 3:17