How Baby Bobot Saved an Entire Clan
by Oliver Carlos
My Uncle Bobot Tamolang (real name: Francisco B. Tamolang, Jr.) was born in 1942, at the onset of the World War 2 in the Philippines. He’s the eldest of the 10 Tamolang siblings. Bataan was surrendered a few months back, and by the end of 1942, the Japanese were then laying the foundations of their government here. Meanwhile, my grandfather “Papang” Francisco Sr., Bobot’s father, had just joined the guerilla forces in Pangasinan.
One day, the three of them- Papang, Mamang, and baby Bobot were traveling together in Pangasinan. Unfortunately, they got caught by the Japanese at a checkpoint. Papang was recognized by the sentries as a wanted man, and so they got themselves in deep trouble.
The Japanese officer had his samurai drawn out and was ready to kill Papang. But as the death blow was about to land on my guerilla grandfather, baby Bobot cried so hard. The wailing of the infant melted the heart of the officer. He decided to let family go.
The rest is history. World War 2 ended in 1945, and Papang and Mamang lived happily ever after. They had 9 more children after Bobot. Their names were Fe, Totoy, Cora, Vicky, Eva (my mother), Cely, Felix, Paz, and Marcos. The youngest child Marcos was born in 1962, he had a 20-year age gap with the eldest one, Bobot. Later on, the Tamolang children had families of their own, and we became one big happy clan.
Mamang would always tell this story to our clan in our reunions. The amazing true-to-life tale on how they were captured by the Japanese, and how they were set free because Bobot cried. She would say, Kung hindi dahil kay Bobot, wala kayong lahat dito! (Had not for Bobot’s wailing, all of you wouldn’t be here today in this reunion!). What Mamang says really makes sense. Had the officer killed Papang on the spot that day in 1942, there wouldn’t be a Tamolang child no.2, no.3, no.4, no.5, no.6 (my Mom), no.7, no.8, no. 9. and no.10. And it follows that there wouldn’t be Tamolang grandchildren and great grandchildren as well. In essence, baby Bobot had indeed saved our entire clan!
This story is similar to how God saved the entire nation of Israel during the time of Moses. The Israelites were slaves in Egypt for 400 years when God raised up a liberator in the person of Moses, who led them across the dried-up Red Sea away from their slave masters.
Moses’s story began with his parents putting him in a basket and placing it on the banks of the Nile River. The Egyptian king had just ordered a genocide of all Hebrew baby boys, so Moses’ parents had that idea. When the Egyptian princess came to bathe on the river, she heard the crying of a baby. The princess saw the cute baby Moses in a basket and took him in the royal family as her own son. She also hired unknowingly Moses’ mother as her child’s nanny. Here are excerpts of that story in Exodus 2 (NLV):
“When the princess opened it, she saw the baby. The little boy was crying, and she felt sorry for him. (verse 6)….. Later…Pharaoh’s daughter…adopted him as her own son. The princess named him Moses, for she explained, ‘I lifted him out of the water.’”(verse 10)
The saving of the Israelites at this point in time was very crucial in the history of mankind. It was from the nation of Israel where Jesus Christ was born 1,500 years later. Without Jesus, we wouldn’t be saved from our sins and from eternal death, which is hell.
Christian life is exciting. God never runs out of ways on how to bail out his people from their woes, whether big ones or small ones. Who would have thought that even the mundane crying of an infant can be used by God as a tool to liberate his people? God is the Lord of the universe and he can use whatever he wishes to serve his purposes.
Are you going thru some trouble today? Stop worrying. God’s help is on the way, that’s for sure. From where and how? That’s the exciting part.
