Women of Welcome: Bold + BraveSampel

This was it. The baby had been pulled from the river by arguably one of the most powerful women in the land. Moses was crying, and Miriam had to think quickly and act boldly. She had only been instructed to watch and see what would happen. Should she do anything else?

Miriam spoke up. She had walked alongside Moses, waiting and standing by, not knowing exactly what, if anything, she should be doing. But when the moment was right, she stepped up and spoke to Pharaoh’s daughter. I (Sarah) wonder how Miriam experienced this moment. Pounding adrenaline as she dangerously broke through society’s barriers and risked speaking up to a powerful woman with the hope of saving her brother? Deep fear that she was doing the wrong thing, potentially risking his life or angering her mother or the princess? Simmering anger that the very family who had put her brother in danger now held the power to save him?

When we are faithful to the unique assignments we’ve been given, we may find ourselves available in the moment when a bold move is required. I am reminded of another woman of Scripture, Esther, whose assignment may have seemed much more glamorous but also put her in a position that required her to speak up. When she reminded Mordecai that if she spoke up in defense of the Jews, she might be killed, he responded, “If you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14).

Miriam was standing by for such a time as this too. Her boldness to speak up to power in defense of the vulnerable was heard and opened the door to restoring this family torn apart by violence and injustice.