Don't Worry Sweetie! Daddy Is On It!

Exodus 2:23 -25 “During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. 24 God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. 25 So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.”

One of the things I like about being a parent is the responsibility that comes along with it. The responsibilities of good parenting are countless. One of them is that good parents tend to think about the future of their children a lot. They did not only think about it, but they also act to ensure that their children will have a better tomorrow. Most of us here we are working hard and saving a lot of money, we buy expensive insurance; we go out of our way, forget our own comfort and buy stuff that we do not need just to ensure that the future of our children is good.

Unfortunately, not all of us are ‘so' good parents. A retrospective look at our (my wife and me) childhood experiences make us want to give our children the kind of life that we never had. Just like most of the parents here, we make hard decisions, sacrifices and give up our comfort to ensure that this dream we have is realised. However, what is interesting here is that most of the time the children themselves have no idea of what the parents will be going through, they are not aware of the fact that they have a tomorrow that must be prepared for. By this, I am not suggesting that they should. Actually, it's okay for them not to, for me that is the beauty of parenting.

Some time ago we had to make a sacrificial decision for our daughter who was four years old by then when she was about to start school. Out of curiosity, I checked with her just to see if she was aware of what was happening. That’s when I realised that she was living in a world of her own. I remember my wife looked at our daughter and said to her, “don’t worry sweetie, Daddy is on it!” Immediately my daughter went to play. It became clear that this was my problem to deal with. While we were stressed and worried about her future, she was playing, smiling, laughing, making noise, and running up and down in the house. Eventually, she ended up going to a very good school in the area, and she liked it very much.

As I was trying to get my mind around this, I realised how nice it can be to have parents because sometimes they carry the burden of your future and worry about the things you don't even know you need. The unfortunate thing is that not all of us do have earthly parents. However, the good news is that we all have a parent in heaven. Jesus said when you pray, say, “Our Father in heaven hallowed be Your name." (Matthew 6:9). This means when we pray, we don't pray to a God who is merely waiting to judge and punish people, but we pray to a loving God who plays the role of a father, of a parent in our lives. Just like I was sitting in front of my daughter, asking her questions about her future that she totally had no idea what I was talking about, maybe life is sitting in front of you asking questions about your future that you cannot answer, and as a result, you are worried and stressed out. Please be reminded through the text we read today that our Heavenly parent does not only think about our future, but He also acts on it before we are even aware of our future needs. I want to encourage you today with the same words my wife told our daughter that day, “Don't worry sweetie! Daddy is on it!”

In the Old Testament, God has always identified the nation of Israel as His chosen people. The Bible says in Deuteronomy 14:2, referring to the nation of Israel, "For you are a holy people to the LORD your God, and the LORD has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the people who are on the face of the earth.” So, at every point in history, God related to them in light of this text. The text we have read is about God's chosen people, His own possession. It began by saying, “During that long period, the king of Egypt died.” This clearly indicates that the story starts from somewhere else. The question we should ask then is during which long period.