She looks down at her weathered old hands and gently glances around the room. She sees the reminders of what was once was her life. She looks in the corner at her bed. That bed with a sinking hole that her stubborn husband refused to fix because it fit how he slept, but now he's gone and the hole still remains. She looks over at the front door and imagines the time she spent yelling at her two sons running in and out and getting into mischief. In the course of 30 seconds she thinks about them growing up and getting married. Realizing the joy of those marriages and the hopes and promises of future grand-children. Now they're gone too.
As she scans the room she realizes it's time to start over. She begins to pack her things, along with her now widowed daughter-in-laws. She begins the journey and as she looks to her right and left she sees youth and new beginnings. She slowly weeps and turns to the girls. She begs them to start over. To turn around and go back. She blesses them with new life and new futures. She can't give them what they should have. They weep together and as one starts the journey back, the other clings to her arm.
As she looks into her beautiful daughter-in-laws eyes, she listens to the words come out of her mouth, "Don't ask me to leave you and turn back. Wherever you go, I will go; wherever you live, I will live. Your people will be my people and your God will be my God."
Ruth 1:6-22 NLT
... As I read these words this morning, I sat just thinking about the amazing friendship God built up in the lives of Naomi and Ruth. Through struggles and emptiness and weeping, there was a bond that formed. A bond of not only family, but of this everlasting-I'll-fight-for-you type of friendship.
I've realized that through my struggles in Ethiopia and being back in the states I have formed two Naomi/Ruth friendships. Friendships that I am so beyond thankful for.
The first is my friend, Tamara:
This woman has been such an amazing mentor for me. In the times and days where I just didn't think I could take another step she encouraged me to keep looking forward and to keep my eyes focused on God. Not to live "culturally" but biblically. To be a strong woman but to do it with compassion and understanding. To stand up for what I believe and not what my opinion was. In the days that I was completely scared I would break down and verbally vomit on people, she was the one who told me it was okay. I know it hasn't been easy for her and God clearly put her in my life to help me take the steps she's already taken.
The second is my friend, Brittany:
I swear we were meant to be friends. Any time I talk to her, I just laugh because we don't even have to explain a thing. She's such a strong woman and inspires me so much to keep pushing for what I'm passionate about and feel called to, no matter how many people tell me I can't/shouldn't do it or how hard it is at times. She's just turned into one of those people you know you'll be friends with for the rest of your life and don't understand why it took going halfway around the world to meet, but you're so glad you did.
Both of these women have become my "go to" people. They're the people that I can call on the lowest of days and they help bring me back to a place of relying fully on Christ. Of remembering to lean on Him and not on me. They are two women who just get it. They are the ones who understand and cheer with you when you tell them you drove a car for the first time, or finally went into a grocery store and didn't cry because you were overwhelmed with all the choices. They are the ones who understand that in the middle of a church service you are "that" person bawling your eyes out because of simple lyrics like-All the weak find their strength at the sound of your great name.
They are the women that are in the same boat with me. They are two women who will fight to keep me in line with Christ and will "go" where I go, and "live" where I live. Who are just like Peter and took the first step out into that water. Who have shown me at times when we get a little frightened and begin to sink, to reach out and feel that warm strong grasp of Jesus and learn what it feels like to have faith. They have helped to teach me to keep going because in the end it is going to be so worth it.
