Read: Ruth 1:15-18
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. (v. 16)
Sometimes our deep desires don’t make sense. They might even take us into desert spaces or into foreign territory. Yet often, we feel an inner pressing to pursue the thing we deeply desire, regardless of whether it is rational.
Ruth’s desire to follow Naomi made no sense. Naomi’s son, Ruth’s husband, had died. The reasonable response for a widowed and destitute Ruth would have been to return to her family’s home, where she could be protected and perhaps even remarry. We don’t know what stirrings caused her to cling to her impoverished Hebrew mother-in-law, Naomi, so adamantly. “Where you go I will go,” Ruth said to Naomi. She pledged her life to her mother-in-law; it was an ultimate display of love. In return for this commitment, Ruth the Moabite was welcomed into the story of God’s people. However, this commitment took Ruth on a journey away from her people, through the wilderness, and into a strange land.
There is a certain joining that happened here: Ruth joining Naomi’s journey and then joining the people of God. For those of us who are not Jewish, this is the joining to which we are invited as well. As Gentile Christians whose ancestors were pagans, we are welcomed into the story of God’s people, just like Ruth. We also are the outsiders who have been grafted in. Perhaps this move also began with a stirring within us. —Amy Curran
As you pray, bring the deep desires of your heart to God.
About the Author
Amy Curran is a gardener, a reader, a runner, and an avid coffee drinker. She lives in Durham, North Carolina, where she runs a community garden and a farm-to-table café for Reality Ministries.
