Devotionals Detail

Scripture Reading: Ruth 1:1-22

 “Where you go, I will go;
   where you lodge, I will lodge;
your people shall be my people,
   and your God my God.”  - Ruth 1:16

These are the words of Ruth, a woman in the Old Testament who has been recently widowed.  She is journeying with her mother-in-law, Naomi, who has also been widowed and is grieving the death of two sons.  They are traveling from Moab, Ruth’s homeland, back to Judah, Naomi’s homeland.  Naomi knows that Ruth has no obligation to follow her to Judah, for that would put Ruth in a dangerous position as a foreigner.  But in their shared grief, Ruth sees Naomi’s pain, and does not leave her to be alone.  Rather she joins her together on a journey, in the hope of new life.  Ruth sacrifices her own homeland, and goes above and beyond the minimum requirements of a daughter in law, staying by Naomi’s side to care for her.

Day after day, there are countless members of our church caring for elderly parents.  They go above and beyond the minimum required of an adult child, and offer compassion and understanding by opening up their homes or providing daily provisions of caregiving. 

Caring for a parent in their sunset years of life is a privilege and an honor, but it is also a challenging task.  Seeing someone you love so dearly who is hurting and in need can be emotionally and physically exhausting.  And yet, the book of Ruth assures us that these acts of loyalty, kindness and love, called “hesed,” is the incarnate God.

The book of Ruth does not state that God is at work within Ruth and Naomi’s experience over the next 4 chapters of the book.  I appreciate this, for it is similar to our daily lives, in which hesed, is working behind the scenes, assumed and often unclaimed.  Though we may not name it, we see hesed is an active presence of God, slowly growing day by day, moving despair and pain into blessing and hope. If offers an assurance that God goes where we go, lodges where we lodge and claims all people as God’s people.  The hesed we offer is given by a God whose hesed is limitless.

In the challenge that caregiving work brings, I pray each of you living it, will recognize that your presence is the assurance of God’s active love daily.  Though the name of God may never be spoken in those moments, the work of God is clear through you.   And in those moments of weariness or heartache, may the limitless hesed of God give you the assurance that your work is not done alone.  God goes where you go, lodges where you lodge, and claims you as God’s own.  Let us pray today in thanks for those who are caregivers of aging parents, that they may know their work as a reflection of God’s hesed.