Through the lens of Woman

Miriam is one of the most complicated women in the Old Testament.

She is the older sister who watched Moses on the Nile. She is the prophetess who led Israel in song after the Red Sea. She is also the woman whose envy of her brother got her struck with leprosy.

All three things are true at the same time.

Most of us prefer flat characters. Heroes or villains. The Bible refuses. Miriam is a worship leader and a backbiter, a prophetess and a sister with a chip on her shoulder, a woman of faith and a woman the Father had to discipline. She contains all of it.

If you have been a woman who carries a complicated record — moments of real obedience and moments of real failure, seasons of faithfulness and seasons of envy, days as a prophet and days as a sister with a wound — you are in the company of Miriam. The Father did not write her out of the story after the leprosy. He restored her. She walked back into the camp. She was still part of the people.

One small thing today: name one piece of your complicated record. Don’t whitewash it. Don’t condemn yourself with it. Bring it to the Father like Miriam came back. He still has a place for you in the camp.