Deliverance (Moses: Out of Egypt)

Deliverance (Moses: Out of Egypt)

You do not need to be afraid
for you will be delivered.
As a child in the darkness of
his mother's womb
is borne into the light
Of day.

The sun will tell you when it's time
Watch the shadows as they change
They lengthen as the
seasons unfurl,
and the numbered days
Grow older.

You lie dreaming in the water,
a soul waiting to be born.
Adrift and knowing only
the rushing of blood and a filtered peace,
the sound of a beating heart -
And silence.

But you will rise and break free of the banks
of those narrowed straits that define you.
Lifted, you will fly into the sun where you will live
A child of fire-a slave no more.
Alight, burnished, ablaze-yet
Not consumed.


* I went to a seder for passover at a friend's house. His mother had recently died and he had found her Haggadah, which is a sacred text used at Passover to conduct the seder. This was a particularly interesting version (there are many) because it was illustrated with drawings that were created by a man who was interred in a concentration camp during the Halocaust. He had made these drawings to occupy himself and adorn the walls of his prison during the time he was "enslaved" there. (Unfortunately, I didn't write his name down and I can't remember it).

It was a fascinating book. I know the story of Moses and the Israelites from my own Sunday school background, but this gave me an entirely different perspective on it. It really caused me to focus on the enslavement and subsequent wanderings of the Jewish people. I had never thought much about it before.

Anyway, in this book, the man talked in his prologue about the concept of Mizrhaim (I think that's the way you spell it). It is what he (as a Jew) called Egypt. A place (for the enslaved Jews) that represented narrowed possibilities and a sort of limbo. That concept really resonated with me. If you think of Bible stories as allegories (as I pretty much do), the story of Moses is one of courage and perseverence in the face of uncertainty and the hope for something better- ie: deliverance.

I found the whole experience (celebrating passover, reading the Haggadah and thinking about how we all in each of our individual situations are dreaming of or working toward our own personal deliverance -whatever form it may take) really uplifting and inspiring.
I felt like sharing it.