Women Who Show Up... for Life (4)

Good Monday morning to you!  Life is good and I'm ready to muse, so I'm glad that you showed up!  I hope that you feel comfortable enough to go ahead and muse right back, I never know where these words are going to land on any given day, so my prayer is always that they will bless you in some way, and always point you to Jesus.

In Women Who Show Up... for Life (3) we looked at Jesus as being The True Bread of Life.  "Jesus said to them, 'I am the Bread of Life: he who comes to Me will not hunger...'". (John 6:35)

We discussed our daily need of Spiritual Food, comparing it to our daily need of physical food, and how as Jesus showed compassion towards those who were physically hungry by feeding them, He was actually pointing them to the deeper truth of their spiritual hunger - a hunger that only He could satisfy.  We also saw how the people missed the Bread of Life because they were too preoccupied in looking for... bread.  "But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you."Matthew 6:33

This week, I am happily embarking on a Summer Bible Study in the book of Ruth - on so many levels, it really is a beautiful love story, and yet, at the outset, I find it also to be a story of a fascinating pilgrimage.  

After just reading through the first few verses of Chapter One, my musings before the Lord have already begun, for in the very first verse we see a family of four - a husband, his wife, and two sons - making a pilgrimage from their homeland of Judah to the land of Moab.  

"Now it came about in the days when the judges governed, that there was a famine in the land.  And a certain man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the land of Moab with his wife and his two sons.  The name of the man was Elimelech, and the name of his wife, Naomi; and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion, Ephrathites of Bethlehem in Judah.  Now they entered the land of Moab and remained there."

In Hebrew, Bethlehem means 'House of Bread'.  And so, because of the famine, this man and his family left the House of Bread, the land of Judah (Israel) to go into the land of Moab; a land that the nation of Israel was in direct hostility with, at best. (Deuteronomy 23:3-6, Judges 3:12-14) 

A quick read of the account in Genesis refreshes us in the fact that God had, years earlier, freed the nation of Israel out of the captivity and bondage of Egypt and after their wanderings in the desert, brought them into the Promised Land.  It was an abundant land, a land flowing with milk and honey, a land that was to be their permanent home... they need not look anywhere else.  So, the question arises, why was there now a famine in the Promised Land - famine in the 'House of Bread'?

It was because the nation of Israel had turned from God and followed after, and served, the gods of the nations around them. (Judges 2:11-19)

So, now we see Elimelech and his family leave the 'House of Bread' and go to Moab to find... bread.  Sometime after their arrival in Moab, Elimelech dies.  Naomi is now left with her two sons; the two boys, as inevitably will happen, meet cute little Moabite girls, and eventually, marry them.  Within ten years of living in Moab, the two sons also die, which now leaves their mother Naomi, in a foreign land, destitute, without her husband or sons, only her two, widowed, daughters-in-law.  Naomi, in her grief, hears that "the LORD had visited His people (Israel) in giving them food".  In other words, the famine in the 'House of Bread' is now over.  So, Naomi decides to pack up and leave and to journey back home; her two daughters-in-law go with her.

And it is here, on the journey to the 'House of Bread' that we see something amazing happen.  At a certain point in the journey, Naomi tells the two girls to go back to their families, and their gods.  That being with her will hold no future for them.  One of the girls kisses Naomi and returns home to Moab - but the other girl, Ruth, clings to Naomi and says this... "Do not urge me to leave you or turn back from following you; for where you go, I go, and where you lodge, I will lodge.  Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God."  Ruth had no way of knowing that this clinging would one day result in her name being forever entered into the royal messianic line - that she herself, a Moabite woman, would one day become the great-grandmother of King David! 

So what does this have to do with Women Who Show Up... for Life?

Well, I believe that in Ruth and Naomi we see a picture of two very different kinds of women, women that we may know today.  Ruth had not yet been to the 'House of Bread', but was intent on going, as she saw Naomi heading in that direction herself.  As a little girl, Ruth would have only known the hostility of her nation towards Israel and their God, never having had an opportunity to know God in her childhood.  And Naomi, well, she had once lived there, yet had left the 'House of Bread' and was now intent on returning.

Both of these women, whether they realized it or not, were preparing to make the journey... to Show Up for Life.

Whenever I study the Bible, I remind myself frequently that what was true physically regarding Israel, is true spiritually of us today, on this side of the cross.  The physical famine of Naomi's time can be correlated to the spiritual famine of our time.  

So often, circumstances can cause us to seek people, places, things, other than God, for our relief.  It was physical hunger that caused Naomi and her family to turn and leave the 'House of Bread', yet that physical hunger could have been the very thing that prompted them to seek out, to worship, to praise, the One Who Supplies All needs.  Turning to the things of this world may seem right at the time, particularly when our bellies are grumbling with physical hunger and the smell of freshly baked bread is wafting through the air from another direction!  But to seek after bread and miss the Bread of Life will more often than not, result in remoteness from God.  It can be so subtle at first, our need is met and we feel satisfied, but our souls begin to languish apart from Him.  It may take only hours or days to realize this languishing of the soul, although sometimes months or even years, and then, like Naomi, perhaps one day you hear of the provision of God among His people, you hear of the Bread of Life giving nourishment to not only the body, but the soul... and you find yourself with an undeniable hunger... and longing.

So here is what I am musing.  Any kind of need, whether physical or spiritual should be my springboard to Christ.  Either way, a time of need is not the time to be turning and seeking filling or fulfilling apart from Him.  Yet, where the body goes, the heart/mind has in all probability gone first.  If the hearts and minds of Naomi and her family had already turned from God in disobedience (which brought about the famine in the first place) it would have certainly paved the way to their actual physical leaving from the 'House of Bread'. 

Remember to, the children of Israel were in a place of blessing when their hearts began to wander from God, they had actually left the 'House of Bread' in their hearts long before the physical famine came upon them - the physical famine simply mirrored and pointed to the truth of the reality of the spiritual famine of their souls.  

Do you find yourself in a place of blessing or a place of need during this season of life?  Your need may not be the result of a wandering heart, just the plain, natural outworking of living here on planet earth.  Wherever you may find yourself, a good question to ask is this... does my place of blessing, or my place of need draw me closer to, or farther away from God?

Personally, I find myself in the season of both blessing and need!  Because of the hearts propensity to wander, both blessing and need have the potential to distract me from Him, yet, continually, my overwhelming desire is to draw even closer to Him in intimacy through prayer and His Word and in living this thing out... faithfully, joyfully, fruitfully!

Joining hands with others heading in the same direction, on the same path, intent on Showing Up... for Life!