faithfulness that won't let go. Ruth 1:16

I just love the story of Ruth and Naomi and it will be a joy to blog about it this week.   It is a great love story filled with intrege, hardship, heroism, romance, suspense and triumph!

The book bares the name of Ruth who was the daughter in law to Naomi.   However,Naomi may  very well be the main character.  Certainly she's the one that we can most closely relate.   Not very often do you find a Ruth in life but most of us have been like Naomi from time to time.

Naomi had suffered great loss.  She and her husband Elimelech left their home land of Bethlehem because of a great famine.  Traveling to the foreign land of Moab, both of her sons found and married Moabite women.  10 years had passed when she made the sad trip home after the death of her husband and the passing of her two sons.   She was destitute without hope.  All that was left for her was to beg back in her hometown of Bethlehem.

On her way home she told her daughters in law to return to their homes for there was no reason for them to die along with her but Ruth would not leave her side.   she proclaimed her devotion saying, "Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God." Ruth 1:16

Yes, tragedy had come to both of them.  It was the kind of tragedy that was experienced by so many  in the dark and bloody days of the Judges.  But this story is not a tragedy.  It is a love story.  It the story of God's faithfulness as displayed through the kinsman redeemer Boaz.  For this reason the book of Ruth is described as a desert Rose.

Today God continues to grow and protect the desert roses. I believe that many people live in a desert spiritually, emotionally or physically speaking.  Some of us look at the world around us and wonder how we will make it.  Sometimes we think about the world awaiting our children. We wonder how will they survive the possible economic, crime and political struggles awaiting them.  The answer is this: God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.  Indeed we should lift up the faithfulness of Ruth but we should never forget the faithfulness or our God who makes beauty from ashes even today.

To ponder:  What ashes has God delivered you from?  What hardships has he protected you from?  
Is there a crises in your life right now?

  Remember Jesus is your redeemer right now and into the future.  So we don't need to fear for God is always near.  He is faithful and won't let us go!