Servant Girl: Parting The Reeds

 Exodus 2:1-10

I never questioned.

Why should I?

It never affected me.

It was always Them.

The Others.

Foreigners.

I never cared.

Why should I?

It was far away.

Almost like a rumour.

Didn't think about it,

because why should it matter?

It never touched me.

Until now.

Suddenly,

parting the reeds

to a screaming baby,

I part the curtains

to a world of pain and sorrow.

I open the basket

to suffering

I never let myself care about.

It's not far away

anymore.

It is right here.

Death and loss,

childless mothers,

this child left to drift

a last hope against hope.

Maybe

I never cared

because this is too hard.

It is too much.

Because now

how can I go back

and let this keep happening?

How can I go back

now that I have seen

this child just like mine,

abandoned for his safety,

a fragment of the suffering

that happens every day?

I never questioned.

Now, I must.

I never cared.

But now I have seen

and it's come close to me

and I cannot go back

to before.

_____________________

[20. July 2021]

Another one who wasn't on my list... XD I tell you, there are way more women in the Bible than we often realise. Today I led a workshop on my method of interpreting the Bible through identifying with figures in the text and writing poetry from their perspective - and this was our text. And I realised I had missed a bunch of women in here, namely the servant girls! So while everyone was writing I wrote too.

I considered the situation in Egypt with the Hebrews being persecuted, their boys murdered, and how the servant girl as an almost "ordinary" Egyptian might have perceived it. Often when we belong to the privileged group it's easy to ignore or overlook the oppression of other groups. Not even on purpose necessarily: it's simply not "on our radar", it doesn't affect us, we never even have to think about it. Or maybe we know but don't realise how terrible it actually is, maybe we even have our excuses to support the injustice.

Actually getting to know someone who is directly affected changes everything. Suddenly it comes much closer, we are confronted with the issue, we have to form an opinion, we have to grapple with our prejudices and maybe revise what we used to think. It's easier not to care when we don't need to come face to face with those who suffer.

So maybe the servant girl had her first brush with what was actually going on with the Hebrews, when she fished that basket out of the water. 

Picture: James Tissot