FN-024 - With Jesus, We Have a Home and a Family

If you enjoy love stories with a Cinderella flavor, Ruth is the book for you. She is the young woman from a foreign, even hated, heritage who watched her father-in-law, brother-in-law, and husband die; said goodbye to her homeland and sister-in-law; then followed her mother-in-law to Israel with those beloved words, "Your people will be my people, your God my God".

Don't skip too glibly over those words - she's leaving all that she knew because she has developed a trust for the God of the visiting family she married into. Her mother-in-law encouraged both ladies to return to their original households, to the culture and deities they grew up with, to the resources their fathers could provide, and Orpah took her mother-in-law's advice, while Ruth took her mother-in-law's hand.

The story goes on, and in Ruth 3:11, her late husband's cousin says to her, "‪#‎FearNot‬, you have a home and a family here with us." At the end of the book, we find she becomes King David's great grandmother, and many generations later the family line includes Jesus.

As we come to God, with a realistic assessment of how foreign and needy we are, and an appreciation for the life He offers, we will hear Him say, #FearNot, you have a home and a family here with us. It may require abandoning all that is familiar, but the rest of the story makes it more than worthwhile.

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