RUTH 1:14
Then they lifted up their voices and wept again; and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.
A number of years ago a new glue, characterized by an unusually strong holding power, was introduced on the market and sold under a variety of names.
Advertisements for this product showed such unusual feats as a car being lifted with a crane while attached only by means of this glue. On another occasion, a full-grown elephant was lifted into the air after having its harness glued to a hoist. The message came through clearly: this super glue bonds in an extraordinary way.
That’s the way Ruth bonded to Naomi. Certainly her old life had a pull on Ruth’s heart. She was not insensitive to her old customs, her familiar haunts or her Moabite family. But the glue that bound her spirit to Naomi was even stronger. It simply would not let go. She “clung” to her mother-in-law with the tenacity of a super glue. Ruth was committed to a whole new life, not just a change of jobs or a change of scenery. Turning back and separating herself from Naomi was not an option.
This same bonding takes place when we receive Christ as our Savior. The Bible says that there is One who “sticks closer than a brother” (Prov. 18:24). The apostle Paul asks, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or naked ness, or peril, or sword?” (Rom 8:35).
He answers his question a few verses later: “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:38-39).
If you are feeling abandoned today, at loose ends with everything around you, rest in the assurance that Jesus sticks with you. Christ will cling to you with a tenacity that would put even a super glue to shame. He will never let you go.
WHEN YOU’RE GLUED TO CHRIST, YOU’RE GLUED FOR GOOD.
WOODROW KROLL
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