Everyone Needs a Ruth

Me and my Ruth 1989 (age 14)

Have you read the Book of Ruth? It's a story of Loss/Love and Redemption. Ruth refuses to leave her mother-in-law after they have lost everything. She travels with her to a land not of her own, works to support her and her mother-in-law and falls in love with Boaz. Through her marriage with Boaz we get King David and eventually Jesus Christ.  There's a verse in the Book of Ruth that just crushes me with it's power...

Ruth 1:16 Ruth replied "don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God."

Have you ever had someone drop everything. leave everything to show you love and comfort, to be there in your darkest hour...well I have!

The complications with my surgery required me staying in the hospital longer than anticipated. Prior to the surgery, I had arranged for my best friend, Heather, to stay with me a couple of days. Well once things went bad, she dropped everything and came. She stayed with me for a week. Now, this wasn't a small gesture because she is a very busy woman. She has a family with kids, she is vital to many different ministries and functions with her Church and she rearranged everything to be there for me. I remember half way through her being there I asked myself, "would I have done the same"?

Many of us have great thoughts of what we would do if...but when the time comes, we find reasons why we can't do those things. In the Bible, Ruth had many reasons not to follow Naomi, but she did it anyway. Heather had many other commitments on her plate, but dropped them all in my hour of need.

During her stay we talked a lot about faith, we prayed, we laughed and she showed me love and friendship in a way that only cancer allowed me to see. From that week, my heart really started to melt and I started to really feel humbled before God and before my friends. I saw that I had not always been a good friend or family member.  It saddened me to know that I could have been so much more in my life, but I had let pride, stubbornness and pettiness close my heart and make me bitter. Before cancer, I could never have seen myself being a Ruth for anyone. Even my daughter can attest to how many times I'd say I was coming to visit her on campus, but then find a reason not to. I always let the world and life prevent me from truly living, truly loving and truly giving myself to others.

The sad part of all of this is that isn't that what Jesus has done for us? Didn't he give up everything to show us love? He loves all the time. He loves us in spite of us!

My biggest take away from that first week home with Heather was that I could see the us that we were at age 11, at age 16, at age 20+ and as the middle aged women (lol) that we have grown into. It was comforting to know that in all of those ages God loved us, nurtured us and prepared us for that moment in time...that moment that one of us would need the other to drop all and run to the other. I know now that if she, or any of my friends and family, ever needed me, I would drop all and run to them.

Have a blessed week!

April

If you or anyone you know is going to be having a Hysterectomy (for any reason) - I highly recommend this site. It is a wealth of knowledge and support.

https://www.hystersisters.com/