“When Naomi heard in Moab that the Lord had come to the aid of His people by providing food for them, she and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home from there.” (Ruth 1:6 NIV)
Ruth was a stranger living in a foreign land. The time came for her to return home and she could not immediately leave. Provisions had to be made. She had to pack and plan and maybe even sell some things to lighten her load and finance her travel. Even though Israel was her true home and she likely had a house awaiting her occupancy in Bethlehem, Naomi was mired in Moab. She had lived in the foreign land for ten long years, burying all of her nuclear family in it’s strange soil. Leaving Moab would surely subtract some things from her and she needed time to ready herself for even more loss.
I think about Ruth’s roots in Moab and I remember that we, too, are sojourners. Each and every believer on earth is just passing through on our way to a far better place. We have a Home just over the horizon, a whole new life awaiting us in a land we haven’t yet set foot in. Are we preparing? Or are we establishing? How tied down have we gotten in this temporary lodging? What will it take when it’s time to pull up stakes and follow God on down the road?
Naomi was at a disadvantage. Israel’s deteriorating economic situation had convinced her husband to trade the Promised Land for the forbidden fruit of Moab. They could have waited on divine disaster relief, but instead they sought greener pastures just over the border. A trip for provisions turned into ten years, as detours often do. The family let their guard down. The sons met girlfriends and before they knew it, had married into local culture; idols and all. The family had assembled such a life in Moab that returning to their original location had become complicated. It required three deaths to reawaken Naomi to God’s will for her.
If we’ll allow it, the seemingly premature passing of people we love will jar us out of life’s lethargy and rouse us to the reality of eternity. Once we are aware of heaven again, we live prepared for the transition. We learn to walk around with short accounts and bags packed; ready for death’s toll or the trumpet sound. We remember that this world is not our home. This is Moab and we are merely passing through. We aren’t meant to establish ourselves on unfamiliar soil. We are meant to live as foreigners, focused on the land just beyond the horizon.
This morning, I’m reminded again of all this acutely. May has long been a special month for me. At our house we laugh about how the major Anna holidays all happen in May. (wedding anniversary, Mother’s Day, birthday) And most of you know, I’m a pretty excitable gal, so May is my month and historically I love it. But this year, every Anna holiday is marked by loss: Mother’s Day is still difficult without a mom to embrace, my dad went Home on my birthday and our anniversary is (regrettably) my late brother’s birthday. I’ve spent the first week of this month with a tear streaming down one side of my face and a smile upon the other. Grief and joy are equal partners as I make my way through May.
This morning, I read of Ruth and her preparations and I realize again how gracious God has been to me. Through the undesirable gift of continuing loss, He has tethered my heart to Home. Not a day passes by where I forget the foreignness of this land. I feel it in my teeth, in the soil under my feet, and in the landscape pockmarked more and more by the absence of people I love. This place is not my home. I am only passing through. And each day is an opportunity further prepare my heart for the Promised Land I’m headed to shortly.
“But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ…” (Philippians 3:20 NIV)
“Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, thought they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day He visits us.” (1 Peter 2:11-12 NIV)
“Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God, set your minds on things above, not earthly things.” (Colossians 3:1-2 NIV)
O Lord, help us understand that we are merely passing through. Keep us from getting mired in Moab. Fix our eyes on this above and keep our feet plodding toward Home. Let us live ever ready for the age to come. Amen.