Exodus

 “And when she could no longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes,
and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein;
and she laid it in the flags by the river’s brink.”
– Exodus 2:3 (KJV)

HEADLINE:  “Egyptian Pharaoh Orders Newborn Hebrew Babies Drowned in the Nile.”

The baby is Moses.
His desperate mother is Jochebed.
She floated him in a papyrus basket in the river.
His sister is Miriam. She stood by. Waiting in the bulrushes.
The daughter of the Pharaoh finds him. Legend names her Bithiah.
Moved with pity, she decides to adopt the baby.
Miriam offers to find a Hebrew woman to help nurse the child.
She brings her mother, the baby’s mother.
That’s clever resistance.

Here is what interests me.
The word for ark in Hebrew is TEVAH.
There are only two times the word TEVAH is used in the Bible.
We have Noah’s Tevah, his Ark, holding a community in floodwaters.
And the ark, a papyrus basket (the modern translation) where the story,
unfolding through Moses, is kept alive.

Two times an ark held people when dangerous waters crashed about.
Two times an ark offered support in times of threatening and monumental change.

There are still arks.
There are still baskets.
We name the graces that keep us alive in times of hardship and struggle.

Where in your life right now do you sense yourself being held rather than carried by your own strength?  What feels like an “ark” — a person, practice, memory, place, or grace — that is keeping you afloat in uncertain or demanding waters?

Where do you notice small, faithful acts of resistance in your own life — moments when love or wisdom quietly pushes back against fear, injustice, or despair?

Create your own TEVAH. On a page, draw a simple basket, boat, or vessel. Inside it, write or sketch the graces that are holding you right now — people, prayers, habits, memories, places, or hopes. Around the basket, you might add waves, words, or colours that name what feels threatening or uncertain. When you’re finished, sit quietly and offer a word of gratitude for what is carrying you through.