Family

Love is in the air in my world.  Two dear friends of mine have recently gotten engaged (and I will be in both of the upcoming weddings), several others have started relationships, and my brother will be getting engaged any day now.  As happy as I am for all of them, it's times like these that I usually start feeling sorry for my state of single-ness.  But instead of wallowing in self-pity, today I decided to immerse myself in the Word of God.  

Ruth was also a single woman.  Well actually, she was a widow, which I can't help but think was a worse fate than single-ness in biblical times.  She was no longer a virgin, no longer pure, and thus less desirable than other women.  Not only that, but she was also a foreigner, which made her chances of remarriage practically nil.  

I marvel at Ruth's courage.  She insisted on staying with her mother-in-law, Naomi, after the death of their husbands.  She had to have known what she was getting herself into.  She was a widowed woman choosing to live away from her family in a foreign land, with someone who (to her knowledge) had no male relatives that could marry her.  These may seem like insignificant details now, but in biblical times this was relational suicide, and I'm sure Ruth must have known that.  

But Ruth had a choice to make, and she chose Naomi.  She chose to love and take care of her family over her own desires.  And God blessed her for it.  As noble a sacrifice as she made, I like to think that many of us would make a similar sacrifice for someone we really truly loved.  But would we do it for God?

The Bible says that God is our Father and we are His children.  We are family.  But would we do the same things for Him that we would do for our earthly families?  Most people wouldn't flinch at the idea of moving to a different state to take care of their ailing parents.  But if God asked them to do the same thing, to minister to hurting people, would they do it?  Would you?  If we are truly God's children, truly part of the family, then it's time that we started acting like it.

Ruth 1:16-18

16 But Ruth replied, "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.  17 Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried.  May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me."  18 When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.