famous but nameless

I am currently reading a book called 'Famous but nameless, lessons and inspiration from the Bible's anonymous characters'. Taken in chronological order it presents short essays about those men and women who, although nameless, are well known today. Today I read about Pharoah's daughter. She showed such compassion when she found baby Moses floating in the Nile. Much like Jesus' own experience an evil ruler wanted to destroy God's representatives, in this case all Hebrew male children. But Moses' mother takes her son and hides him in an ark made of reeds. His sister is to watch over him in the crocodile-filled river. Pharoah's daughter knew at once that this was one of those Hebrew children but she choose to save his life. She must have realized that it was no coincidence that the sister was close by and that she could recommend a woman to nurse the child.

We know so little of this un-named woman, how she dealt with others around her, but she lives on today as a symbol of a courageous and tender woman. Given the choice, she chose to save this child and he in turn would save hundreds of thousands, if not millions, leading them to freedom from slavery. She did the right thing.

May that be true of us. If offered a choice of showing condemnation or compassion, let's choose as she did. It appears that her father allowed her act of mercy and came to love the boy. There is no sense of her having been punished for disobeying his command. That reminds me of what Paul wrote in Romans 8:1 - There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit.