So I’m back….
And before we start…
please…
the contrast of where we went…
and where we live…
and can I just say…
Wow God!
Which is exactly the theme of the VBS that Graham and Emmett attended a couple of weeks ago. I got to pick them up one day and was transported back to when our church would hold similar events each summer.
VBS is a great week for parents and kids centered around a simple theme reinforced with stories, activities, snacks and a craft.
And it inspired me to hold this week’s series called….
VBSWOTGABYOS
or…
Vacation Bible School WithOut The Glitter And Bring Your Own Snacks
Because…
I tended to lose my religion helping kids create something out of popsicle sticks, glue and pompoms…
and…
since this is virtual Bible School there will be no goldfish crackers or granola bars.
Sorry…but there will be random pics from our real vacation interspersed so…
are you ready Campers???
Let’s do this thing….
Our theme this week will be…
With God we Lack Nothing <3
Today’s story comes from Ruth which happens to be one of my favorite books to read because it is short and it ends sweetly and there are a zillion lessons in it.
But since VBS is very focused and stream lined, we are landing on Naomi and her return to her hometown in a great state of “lack”.
Naomi and her husband, Elimelech, had left their home and people due to a great famine. They settled in Moab and found, we would surmise, food and work and a life.
They raised two sons and then Elimelech died.
The boys married, but then each of them died and Naomi was left with two daughter-in-law’s and not much else to go on.
(Sorry…adult Bible School gets a little more real and no peppy songs to go with this)
So she and the girls packed up and decided to head back to her home of Bethlehem Judah, because Naomi had heard the famine had ended.
As they journeyed, the reality of her situation began to sink in and Naomi urged these girls to return to their own homes.
She had nothing for them – no hope of bearing sons for them to marry eventually…no hope for providing for herself, much less two foreign widows…
she “lacked”…
big time.
One tearfully left and returned home…
one tearfully and resolutely hung by her side.
We don’t know why, but Ruth felt certain that life with Naomi and Naomi’s God in a strange place amongst a strange people was going to be better than anything she had left behind.
As they entered the city, neighbors and old friends recognized Naomi and welcomed her by name.
But she told them her name was no longer Naomi as she was going by a new handle…
Mara…bitterness…because the Lord has abandoned me.
In her circumstances, Naomi saw everything she had lost in magnification and it overwhelmed her view of who God is.
Her perspective was clouded and it crowded out the young woman at her side…
Ruth….
who had committed herself to the very God that Naomi thought had abandoned her.
OH, for sure, their situation was real.
They were two widows, one foreign, in a culture that was not kind to either…
But God.
He is faithful.
And He was faithfully weaving a love story for Ruth…for Naomi…for all of us <3
If you haven’t visited the book of Ruth for a while, may I suggest you take a lemonade or iced tea out to the porch sometime today and open the pages of the story?
Follow them as Naomi and Ruth find God’s provision in Bethlehem Judah.
Laugh with Naomi as they place her grandson on her lap at the end of this precious story…the story of the birth of King David’s grandpa, Obed…
and then join me back here tomorrow because…
say it with me…
With God we lack nothing <3