Where You Go, I Go

Ruth said, “Do not press me to leave you or to turn back from following you! 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

REFLECTION:

The story of Ruth and Naomi is one of the most beautiful in the Hebrew Scriptures. After losing everything, these two women are left with each other in a world that saw them as valuable only if they were married, or had children. Tragedy has removed both of these identities, but it cannot remove the identities they bear as friends, allies, and partners.

Ruth makes this clear in her statement to Naomi, quoted above. She says definitively, my primary identity is not national, it is relational. I am with you. Your people will be my people. My first identity is as a partner for you.

Today, whatever we are facing, I wonder if each of us can hear the voice of God in these powerful words. The same God who traveled with the people through their desert wanderings, and showed up in an offensively ordinary birth in Bethlehem...that same God says clearly; where you go, I will go. Your people are my people.

May we all commit to the courage to trust this promise, and the work of making it real for others as well.

PRAYER:
God, I trust you are with me, whether I sense your presence or not. Help me avoid the mistake of thinking my feelings are an accurate judge of your nearness. Thank you for walking with me today. Amen.