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Had I Been Joseph's Mother

Had I been Joseph's mother
I'd have prayed protection from his brothers
"God, keep him safe.
He is so young, so different from the others.'
Mercifully,
she never knew there would be slavery and prison, too.

Had I been Moses? mother
I'd have wept to keep my little son:
praying she might forget
the babe drawn from the water of the Nile.
Had I not kept him for her nursing him the while,
was he not mine'
"and she but Pharaoh's daughter'

Had I been Daniel's mother
I should have pled "Give victory!
"this Babylonian horde godless and cruel'
Don't let him be a captive-better dead,
Almighty Lord!'

Had I been Mary,
Oh, had I been she,
I would have cried as never mother cried,
"Anything, O God, Anything...
"but crucified.'

With such prayers importunate
my finite wisdom would assail
Infinite Wisdom.
God, how fortunate
Infinite Wisdom should prevail.

Prodigals and Those Who Love Them, Ruth Bell Graham, 1991, Focus on the Family Publishing, p. 69

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