LIFE’S CURVEBALLS

DAY 232 OF 365 IN 2021

Reference text: Ruth 1:1-22

Ruth 1:16 But 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.

I came across a rather interesting statement today: “I plan for everything, even the things I don’t plan for”. How great it would be if this could be everybody’s truth such that everything is always accounted for and our lives were devoid of any unexpected happenings.

The word that came to mind before I read the text today was “curveballs” and there was such a seamless relation to the day’s text. We read the introduction to the book of Ruth. In particular, our spotlight initially falls on Elimelech, Naomi and their two sons, Mahlon and Chilion before Ruth and Orpah came into the picture.

Elimelech’s migration to the land of moab with his household was to escape the famine in Judah, much like many do in the search for opportunities. But as curveballs go, both the father and his two sons died in the land of Moab. Their place temporary sojourn had became their final resting place.

Naomi had lost the people closest to her and was prepared to part ways with her daughters in law. It was during this process that Ruth realised one thing that had remained with Naomi all the while and remained tangible: “her God”. Hence, Ruth’s declaration ‘your God will be my God’. Beloved, one can plan for so much, but life has a way of throwing in curveballs on our journey. But regardless of how many of those surprises come our way, let’s bear in mind that God remains a certainty.

#sly