10/19/11

Woof, Woof!!!


Cute, very CUTE!  I must admit I chuckled when I saw this. Woof, Woof!!!  Talk about a different sense of humor.  BUT, family is family.  You do, in reality, carry them (sometimes even literally) with you everywhere you go.  You love them, care for them and stand by them no matter what. Which leads me to these passages from the book of Ruth.

Ruth 1:1-13 (WEB)
1) It happened in the days when the judges judged, that there was a famine in the land. A certain man of Bethlehem Judah went to live in the country of Moab, he, and his wife, and his two sons.
2) The name of the man was Elimelech, and the name of his wife Naomi, and the name of his two sons Mahlon and Chilion, Ephrathites of Bethlehem Judah. They came into the country of Moab, and continued there.
3) Elimelech, Naomi’s husband, died; and she was left, and her two sons.
4) They took them wives of the women of Moab; the name of the one was Orpah, and the name of the other Ruth: and they lived there about ten years.
5) Mahlon and Chilion both died, and the woman was bereaved of her two children and of her husband.
6) Then she arose with her daughters-in-law, that she might return from the country of Moab: for she had heard in the country of Moab how that Yahweh had visited his people in giving them bread.
7) She went forth out of the place where she was, and her two daughters-in-law with her; and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah.
8) Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go, return each of you to her mother’s house: Yahweh deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead, and with me.
9) Yahweh grant you that you may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband.” Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voice, and wept.
10) They said to her, “No, but we will return with you to your people.”
11) Naomi said, “Go back, my daughters. Why do you want to go with me? Do I still have sons in my womb, that they may be your husbands?
12) Go back, my daughters, go your way; for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say, ‘I have hope,’ if I should even have a husband tonight, and should also bear sons;
13) would you then wait until they were grown? Would you then refrain from having husbands? No, my daughters, for it grieves me much for your sakes, for the hand of Yahweh has gone out against me.”

Ruth 4:13-17 (WEB)
13) So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife; and he went in to her, and Yahweh gave her conception, and she bore a son.
14) The women said to Naomi, “Blessed be Yahweh, who has not left you this day without a near kinsman; and let his name be famous in Israel.
15) He shall be to you a restorer of life, and sustain you in your old age, for your daughter-in-law, who loves you, who is better to you than seven sons, has borne him.”
16) Naomi took the child, and laid it in her bosom, and became nurse to it.
17) The women, her neighbors, gave him a name, saying, “There is a son born to Naomi;” and they named him Obed. He is the father of Jesse, the father of David.

What is family?  Is it just those you share your gene pool?  Or is it something more?  Ruth could have left Naomi and returned to her physical family, but did not.  She loved her mother-in-law and eventually God blessed us all through her son Obed.  Family is a matter of the heart, and whether your life with them is easy or hard, if love is there, hard times or difficult situations really do not matter.  This applies to our spiritual family as well.  God loves us and cares for us...no matter what.  Its up to us to remember that always and return that love.  Humm, I never thought of myself as a sub-woofer before....