I Will Follow You...

Week 18 Days 3 and 4
Intro (in my Bible) and Ruth 1

I actually read this a couple days ago but our life has been a bit topsy turvy this week.

Finally, I get a reprieve from war.

True, the chapter (and book) opens with  deaths.  Three of them.  Naomi lost her husband, then her two sons.

Not back to back, but still, that is a lot of loss in a ten year period.

My heart hurt for her.

So now Naomi is alone.  And not only alone, but she is living in a land (Moab) that is not hers.

So she decides to go home.

Isn't that what we all want to do when things are rough?  Go home.

Naomi wanted to go back to Judah.

At first, the two daughter in law, who I am sure were still mourning, followed Naomi.

I mean, they had a great sense of loss too.

And this was the one connection they had to their late husband's family.

It isn't like they had e-mail to catch up with one another once Naomi left.

This was it.

Naomi insisted that the girls return to their own homes. They were young.  They still had a life left.

I would like to think (and in my mind it is) it was an unselfish act.

They all wept.

Then Orpah kissed her mother in law and returned home.

But Ruth remained.

I have always wondered...was Naomi secretly pleased she still had a companion to travel with? Or did she just want to be alone which would certainly be understandable in these circumstances?  I don't know.

But it didn't matter.

Ruth was not going anywhere.

She was staying.

One of my favorite verses (that makes me think of the song) is Ruth 1:16.

But Ruth said, "Do not urge me to leave you or turn back from following you; for where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge.  Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God.

Sidenote:  I really wanted to have the video link to Chris Tomlin's video "I Will Follow" that always makes me think of this verse, but it is not cooperating. :(

Anywho...

Ruth and Naomi travel on back to Bethlehem.

But the story isn't quite over then.

Naomi's friends are happy to see her.  But Naomi is still mourning.  She isn't just a sad mourning.  She feels bitter.  She even asks her friends to call her "Mara" which means bitter.  She felt the Lord had dealt bitterly with her and brought her back empty.

What strikes me about this is that we have all felt like that at some point in our lives.

And I don't know about you but when I feel that way, I feel guilty.

Guess what?

God did not strike Naomi/Mara down for feeling that way.

In fact, she was still to become part of a greater story.

Not that we should go through life in a state of bitterness.

But I just have to believe (based on this and other stories) that God understands.  And He loves us still.

Tomorrow:  Ruth 2

Reba