The Future: Day 4
Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back, each of you, to your mother’s home. May the LORD show you kindness, as you have shown kindness to your dead husbands and to me. May the LORD grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband.”
Then she kissed them goodbye and they wept aloud and said to her, “We will go back with you to your people.”
Ruth 1:8-10 NIV
Thought
The entire book of Ruth is a rich tapestry of grief, love, and faith in the future. The story weaves past, present, and future through the lives of three widows, two young and one old. It relates how they responded to the loss of their husbands, and how God blessed each in a different and very personal way. Their mother-in-law, Naomi, urged the two younger women, Ruth and her sister-in law Orpah, to go back to their respective mothers’ homes. Both Orpah and Ruth weep in protest, “We will go back with you to your people.” Either option is going back to the past.
Prayer
God, I still strain against the urge to return to the known safety and security of the past. I pray that you will continue in kindness to me as you gently lead me toward the future. Amen.
Assurance
When I let go of the life that once was, I live in the present and claim the future.