Making a Home With God

A couple of years into our marriage, my husband and I began saving to buy a house. We viewed several apartments with lower rent than our downtown loft, deciding on an apartment in which the tenants of ten years had been smokers. With the promise of no smoke smell from the landlord, we signed the lease. Stepping into the apartment on moving day, the smoke smell still overpowered. The place reeked, and we dubbed it “The Ashtray.” A few months into the lease, we decided to shop for furniture. Delivery day brought not only our couch but also the knowledge that said couch could not fit up the stairs. Enough was enough, we decided. We looked for a house in earnest and fell in love with a Georgian revival complete with interior woodwork.

And this series of events led to the place we call home.

Another series of events led to the place Ruth called home. A Moabite, whose husband and his family likely shaped her belief in God, Ruth argued against her mother-in-law's suggestion that Ruth return to her homeland, after the deaths of Naomi’s husband and Ruth’s husband.
From Ruth’s words in our key verse, we learn that building a home with God begins with choosing to serve God. In choosing to serve Yahweh, the God in charge of all existence, Ruth gained a home in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.

When Boaz praised Ruth for her good character, she espoused humility, “[falling] on her face, bowing to the ground,” and asking him why she, a foreigner, had found favor with him. (Ruth 2:10). Ruth’s humbleness gained her a home in Boaz’s field, gathering grain to feed Naomi and herself.

In putting on “a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control” (2 Timothy 1:7), Ruth approached the threshing floor “softly and uncovered his feet and lay down” (Ruth 3:7). In this act, which could have had a sexual connotation, Ruth established a home in Boaz’s heart, for he saw not a brazen woman, but a kind woman who had chosen him over the younger men.

Their story continues with a complication with a closer kinsman-redeemer, yet Boaz quickly solves this problem, cementing Ruth’s home with him. Boaz and Ruth married, conceiving a son, Obed the father of Jesse, who was the father of David, a genealogical line that continues to none other than Jesus.

This series of blessings in Ruth’s story paints a picture of living according to biblical principles and for Elohim, our God with the power to pave our path. If we too create a home with God, we can “eat the fruit of the labor of [our] hands” (Psalm 128:2) and experience our own version of “a fruitful vine within [our] house” (Psalm 128:3). If we die after living a life for Christ, our story begins again with our eternal reward.

Dear God, give me the strength I need to conquer tough situations and an attitude reflective of your laws. May your blessings remind me of the peace that comes from a mind steadfast on your Word.

Throughout This Day: When a tough situation comes along, remember the series of God’s blessings that has led to where you are today. Pray for your day with a verse such as Psalm 29:11.