When Opportunity Knocks

When Opportunity Knocks

Miriam

Read: Exodus 2:4, 7-8

Once upon a time, a man climbed onto his roof to escape rising floodwaters and prayed for God to rescue him. In a little while, a man passed by in a rowboat and tried to rescue him. The man on the roof declined, believing that God would rescue him. Later, a helicopter hovered overhead and dropped down a rope. The man refused to take it, preferring to wait for God’s help. Eventually the man drowned, and in heaven he asked why God hadn’t answered his prayer. “What do you mean?” replied God. “I sent you a rowboat and a helicopter. What more did you want?”

Moses’ sister displayed more intelligence than the man in this joke. When the Egyptian princess found the basket, Miriam boldly offered to find a Hebrew woman to nurse the baby. We can only wonder how this little girl of ten or younger felt as she approached the daughter of the cruel pharaoh who hated her people and had ordered the murder of their newborn boys. Because of her devotion to her baby brother, Miriam didn’t allow the situation to intimidate her. She seized the opportunity, and as a result of her alertness and quick action, Moses spent the first few years of his life with his own family.

How often have we missed God’s answers to our prayers because they didn’t take the shape we expected? Sometimes we miss his deliverance from difficult situations because we don’t watch for the opportunities that he sends. After we have prayed to God for help, the next step is to demonstrate our trust by expecting him to act. By staying alert and taking advantage of his provision even when it comes in unexpected ways, we’ll be more like Miriam and less like the man on the roof.

Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days.

Ephesians 5:16