Week of Sunday, September 20, 2026
Miriam — Exodus 2:4-8
God takes care of us through others
The Big Idea
Memory Verse
"And his sister stood at a distance to know what would be done to him."
The only verse in the passage where she is the subject. Everything else happens to Moses; this is the one thing she does.
Conversation Starters
For the dinner table or the car line this week.
- Who is somebody smaller than you that you could look out for?
- Who looked after you this week?
- What is something you can do that a grown-up cannot do as easily?
Family Activity · 10 min
The Quiet Job
Each person takes one job this week that nobody will see them do — empty the bin before anyone asks, put somebody else's shoes away, refill the water filter. Do not announce it. On Saturday, sit down and try to guess what everybody else's job was. The guessing is the point: it only works if you were paying attention to each other all week.
Pray Together
God, show me one person this week who needs somebody, and let it be me.
What We Did Sunday
We learned that God takes care of us through others. Everybody knows the baby in the basket. This week was about his sister — a girl, probably still a child, who stood in the reeds and then walked up to a princess.
What they learned Sunday
Everybody knows the baby in the basket. Almost nobody can name his sister.
Pharaoh had ordered every Hebrew baby boy killed. Moses' mother hid him for three months, and when she could not hide him any longer she put him in a basket at the edge of the river and walked away — because staying would have got them both killed. Her daughter stayed instead. Miriam stood at a distance and watched. When Pharaoh's own daughter found the basket, Miriam walked out of the reeds and offered to find a Hebrew woman to nurse the baby — and the woman she fetched was his mother, who was then paid to raise her own son. The Bible never says how old Miriam was. Probably a child.
- Who was watching the basket?
- Why did she have to be careful?
- Who is somebody smaller than you that you could look out for?
Chaplain America
A basket, a river, and a girl nobody was watching.
Exodus 2:4-8
And his sister stood at a distance to know what would be done to him. Now the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her young women walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her servant woman, and she took it. When she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the baby was crying. She took pity on him and said, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children.” Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and call you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?” And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Go.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother.
Around the table
This Sunday is not the story you think it is. Everybody knows the baby in the basket. Almost nobody can name his sister, and she is the one the whole thing turns on.
Who is somebody important in your life that other people would never have heard of?
She was probably a kid. The Bible never says how old Miriam was — best guess is somewhere between a child and a teenager. She is the one standing in the reeds while soldiers walk past.
What is the bravest thing you have ever seen a kid do?
Nothing to prepare tonight. Tomorrow they hear about a girl who walked up to a princess. Let it be new.
Today they learned that God takes care of us through others — and that the other, this time, was a child. Ask them whose story it was before you ask anything else.
Who was watching the basket?
She walked up to the princess and started talking. A Hebrew girl, in a country that had ordered Hebrew boys killed, made a suggestion to the king's daughter. And it worked.
When did you last say something to someone in charge that was hard to say?
This week's mission
Be the one who notices
Find one person this week who needs somebody, and be somebody. Not a grand thing. Sitting near them counts. Miriam's whole contribution was standing where she could see and then saying one sentence at the right moment.