Water is central to Moses’ story. When I think about water, I am acutely aware of its life-giving power, as well as its ability to cause destruction and chaos. Every time Moses encounters water, it is coupled with an uneasy tension, knowing that the slightest jostle can tip him into catastrophe. This is the same tension and anxiety that many adoptees feel.

Moses’ first encounter with the water was in a basket as his mother floated him down the Nile River, in hopes that he would find safety. As an adoptee and a parent, this action feels like a huge risk. The Nile is known to be home to crocodiles and hippopotamuses. Both are creatures that lurk beneath the surface. Despite Moses’ mother sending his sister, Miriam, to hide and watch out for him as he floated along in the basket, his life was in danger. Had the basket tipped, Moses could have drowned or been eaten by an animal. Miriam, too, was at risk. Had she needed to rescue Moses, she could have had a deadly encounter with a crocodile. As an adoptee, it is not hard to look back over my own life and see all the ways I was not safe. Social Services was no more a guardian than Miriam was. They could never have been fully aware of what lurked beneath the surface. We often hear that the water brought Moses to safety. I believe that Moses found his way to Pharoh’s Daughter despite the water. Similarly, many of us adoptees have found our way to a productive adulthood, despite our adoptions. The reason Moses was safe was because God was in the water.

Moses was raised in the palace as the son of Pharoh’s Daughter. It is unclear what he endured in that environment. Was he accepted as an equal to the Egyptians? Was he made fun of by his peers? Did he endure the snickers of his community? Many Christians assume that Moses lived a life of privilege. Many people think the same thing about my own upbringing. They float around expectations of gratitude for piano lessons and Friday night pizza, while ignoring my inner isolation of living in a community that was void of anything that reflected my own identity. Similar to Moses, the Black community who reflected my identity were stereotyped as the lower class. I believe that it was not difficult for Moses to go off into the wilderness by himself because he was already used to being alienated in his community.

God called Moses out of the desert to negotiate between his two families. Caught in the middle, it is not difficult to imagine that Moses did not fit in anywhere. Despite this, he was obedient. After a series of standoffs and plagues, Moses was able to lead his family out of Egyptian slavery. They made it as far as the Red Sea and realized that Pharoh and his army were in pursuit of them. Moses again had an encounter with the water. Per God’s instructions, Moses raised his staff, and the waters parted. Moses led his family to safety. Pharoh and his toxic ideas about the future and identity of the Hebrew people drowned in the water. Again, God was in the water. Some of us adoptees need to step into the water and let God take care of the toxic labels and destructive behaviors that others have chased us with. Neither our birth family nor adoptive family will make us whole. Only God can do that.

After three days of being in the desert and searching for clean water, Moses came upon a place with water that was unfit to drink. The Bible describes the water as bitter. Maybe this bitter water reminded Moses of everything that he had been through. Maybe he thought about the messy turns his life had taken. Despite God helping Moses along the way, maybe he was weighed down by the heaviness of it all. However he was feeling, the Bible tells us that Moses cried out to God. I imagine that it was a cry of desperation. I have been there. Despite God’s hand over my life, the bitter realities that my adoption experience has brought me through have weighed heavily. I have shed bitter tears and cried out to God. And again, God was in the water. God showed Moses a fallen log and told him to toss it into the water. Immediately the water was cleansed and tasted sweet.

As adoptees, we need to bravely wade in the water. Our adoptions have given us a front-row seat to the instability and isolations of this world. As tempting as it is to deny our experiences, we need to let God meet us in the water. The Negro Spiritual, “Wade in the Water,” written in 1901, says: