5-28-2024

Good Morning All,

          Ruth 4:15; “He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age, for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons, has given birth to him.”

     The story told in the Book of Ruth is a very unique story.  It starts with a man, his wife and their two sons moving to a new country.  While they are there, the husband dies.  Yet the two sons each got married so life went on.  But then it gets tragic; both sons die.  So, it is the woman, her name is Naomi, is left in a strange land with her widowed daughters-in-law.  This is not a really good way to be.  Women had very few ways to earn a living.  They were wives and mothers, or they were beggars or prostitutes.  Once in a while they might be heralded as a prophetess or a priestess, but this was very rare.  Most women faced a brutal life outside of a marriage, especially in a foreign land.

     So, Naomi decided to pack up and go home to Bethlehem but even that was not a great option.  She had been gone so long she wasn’t even sure she had any relatives who might consider taking her in.  So, she tried to get her two daughters-in-law to go back to their family as she had nothing to offer them.  One went back but one, named Ruth, went back with her.  Yet as she travelled; she was despondent and sad; what fate faced them when they returned?  Naomi was so sure that nothing good awaited them that she told anyone who asked to call her “Mara” because her life was bitter.  Yet God acted.  A redeemer, a man named Boaz took her back and then he married Ruth.  This provided for Naomi, and she no longer had a life of pain and struggle ahead of her.  She had, as our verse says, “a restorer of life and a nourisher in your old age.”

    Have you ever experienced a time in your life that seemed beyond hope?  Maybe you feel that way right now.  It may seem like there is nothing left for you; it may seem that all things of value are gone.  The people you loved, the job you adored, the health that you enjoyed are now all seemingly long gone.  The thing we have to do is to hang on.  We need to hang on to our faith and to trust in God’s mercy.  Even in our darkest hour God has sent us a redeemer to buy us back and to rescue us from our sorrow.

   Jesus came for that reason; to rescue us from all of our sorrow and our despair.  God can be and should be trusted to reach down and to lift you out of the pit of despair and from the deep waters of hopelessness. He knows your pain and knows your sorrow.  He is able to lift your burdens and to carry your heart.  He will restore you; he will nourish you and he will provide for you and all your needs.

Father, you are our only source of hope.  In you do we find our redemption through Jesus.  Lift us from the well of sorrows.  Pull us from the deep waters of despair and lift our hearts and our spirits so that we may know your joy.  In Jesus precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret