DEVOTIONAL MESSAGE OF THE DAY FROM REV. MARY WHITE
MIRIAM, BELOVED REBEL
“Let her be shut out of the camp for seven days,
and after that she may be brought in again.”
– Numbers 12:14
They thought they were punishing Miriam, the rebel Yahweh loved, sending her outside the circle. Had they forgotten that it was Miriam who had run ahead into the living waters of the Reed Sea?
For Miriam knew the signs of the water, where it lay deep and where it played in the shallow sands. It would be said that when she died, the wells of the desert dried up. She’d danced to the stars, here by the Sea of Reeds (Red Sea) where the sky revealed its mystery, uninterrupted in the wide sky. The desert lark was her evening prayer, hiding so cleverly as it did among the scarce underbrush. She barely slept through the night, for that was when the desert came alive with life. As she moved in this sacred space she received as gift, her spirit came alive again, all blemishes cast by fears and jealousy dropping away.
The journey must continue, they said, but no one would move without Miriam. This Miriam of unique stature—a female prophet! But that wasn’t what distinguished Miriam. It was her love of life, the joy she brought, and the songs she sang with unbridled celebration. Miriam had been condemned. She challenged the idea that God spoke only through Moses. Were not she and Aaron also able to speak the Word of the Creator? She wanted so much for them to see how the child who stood in wonder counting the falling stars also spoke clairvoyantly, how the bright sky blue of the desert lizard was a glimpse of Divine Beauty. She saw God’s revealing everywhere: in the spirit of the acacia tree, in the elder who could read the shifting of the winds. How could they have missed the whisper of God in the coral reefs as they left the sea?”
Reflection Questions
“Where has God been revealed to you in the last 24 hours? Where do you really find joy? Is it not good and right that you savour it?”
– Excerpt from: Betty Lynn Schwab “Rising with the Morning Star”
Keep safe, Keep connected.
Blessings and the strength of Love be with you.
Rev. Mary