Among the many foundational stories in the Judaeo-Christian tradition is one that I particularly cherish. It’s about the courage of three women who risked their lives and reputations to save a child. When Pharaoh went on the warpath to kill all the male offspring of the Jewish women in Egypt, Moses’ mother Jochebed and his sister Miriam tucked the three month old baby in a reed basket and placed it in the river. Not knowing what would become of him, who or whether someone would find him, these two brave, selfless women were willing to take a chance that he would live, knowing certainly that he would die otherwise. Downstream, Moses was rescued by Pharaoh’s daughter, who took him into the royal palace to be raised as a prince. Without these three women, Jews and Christians would have had a very different history, if, indeed, any history at all.
This is a story of the lengths a mother will go to ensure her child’s health and safety. Leaf through the Bible sometime and you will find other similar stories. Like Hannah’s: childless until her old age, Hannah brought her son, Samuel, for whom she had prayed for many years, and gave him to Eli, to grow up in the priest’s household. Like Mary’s: A few days after giving birth to Jesus, she traveled by night on a long and dangerous journey to Egypt to escape Herod’s murderous rage.
These stories and others like them may or may not be historically accurate. Nonetheless, they are truthful. Because each one reveals the fierce love of a mother for her child. Each reflects God’s promise: “As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you.”
There is a group of mothers in our midst right now who embody this kind of fierce commitment to their children. While not as sensational or apparent at first glance, their story is as much about a determination to safeguard their children’s future. In their words, “We are mothers, grandmothers, and other caregivers who can no longer be silent and still about the very real danger that climate change poses to our children’s and grandchildren’s future. We have watched our leaders at every level fail to take action to address the growing climate crisis. We are mobilizing our energies and talents to build a movement that will be a force for change, beginning in our own communities and moving throughout the country and, eventually, the world.”
This is Mothers Out Front, a local group which is part of a statewide and growing consortium of activists who are speaking truth to power “about the very real danger that climate change poses to our children’s and grandchildren’s future.”
I have the privilege of working with some of these young women. They are women who have households to run, children to raise and jobs to hold down; nonetheless they give selflessly of their days and evenings to act and advocate for a healthy future. These women are smart, resourceful and dedicated. They embody all the best aspects of Mother Bear, who protects her cubs no matter what. Unlike the biblical mothers, whose children were in very present danger, their children are safe for now. But they have the knowledge and foresight to see that if things don’t change, these and all children and grandchildren and beyond will be not be safe. Their future will be just as dangerous to them as any king’s threat.
I applaud these amazing women and I see in them the hope that with them and by their example, all of us will join together to ensure that their children and all of the children may live.