Lesson Four • We Are Family
Devotion #6: Grandparenting
Rich Sawicki
When Naomi, Orpah, and Ruth are introduced to us at the beginning of Ruth 1:3-5, we see they have all experienced a great loss with the death of their husbands. All three women were widowed and it looked like it would be impossible to carry on the family name.
I wonder, “If children are a blessing from the Lord, what are grandchildren?” Since I am a grandparent, let me tell you. Grandparenting is the very best part of parenting. It is like getting a do-over. I view it like retaking a test years later after you have studied and studied and studied. I mean you have so many more great answers now because you learned all the wrong answers on your own kids.
You get to have all the fun of parenting in loving unconditionally, spending quality time together, laughing, playing, just being silly, and spoiling them because you have a little extra now that maybe you did not have with your own kids. Most importantly, it is not really your responsibility to punish them if they do something wrong. Of course, you can guide them and tell them what is right and wrong, but I leave the punishment up to the parents.
Punishments are just as hard for parents as they are for kids. So, how do you think God felt when we received the punishment for sin? What is the punishment for sin? It is death; spiritual and physical death and eternal separation from God. However, God redeemed us from that punishment by sending His son to die on the cross for our sins. When we confess and believe in the name of Jesus, we are adopted into His family and reconciled back to God. We are redeemed by the blood of Christ. The sin that separated us from God is not in the way anymore and God no longer sees our sins. He only sees His son. Now that we are His children, we will never have to receive the punishment of death that we truly deserved. That does not mean bad things will not happen.
Naomi did not think she would ever get to be a grandparent, this was devastating in those days. Her circumstances caused her to become so bitter that she changed her name to Mara, which meant bitter. Orpah on the other hand took her circumstances into her own hands and chose to go back to her old ways. She left her new family to return to her own people and her old gods.
Ruth was faithful to Naomi and chose to stay and go to Bethlehem. More importantly, she was faithful to God. She trusted in the Lord even though she had no idea what the future held for her or Naomi. Her faith was rewarded through the family she had chosen. God blessed her with Boaz, a kinsman redeemer, who took her to be his wife. God blessed her as she had a son and Naomi had a grandson, his name was Obed.
We need to remember when bad things happen throughout life, it is not always God punishing us. He knows the full picture and we can trust Him even when things seem impossible. When bad things happen to us, we cannot just go back to our old ways. We need to bring our burdens and lay them down at the feet of Jesus. When we cannot understand why, we need to have faith like Ruth did. She did not complain and she did not go back to her old life. She did not turn from God and she submitted everything to Him. God then made the impossible possible.
Ruth 4:13-17 says, “So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife. And he went in to her, and the Lord gave her conception, and she bore a son. Then the women said to Naomi, ‘Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you this day without a redeemer, and may his name be renowned in Israel! He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age, for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons, has given birth to him.’ Then Naomi took the child and laid him on her lap and became his nurse. And the women of the neighborhood gave him a name, saying, ‘A son has been born to Naomi.’ They named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.”
Out of the lineage of Elimelech came Obed. From Obed came Jesse and from Jesse came David. Out of the house of David came the King of kings and the Lord of lords. He is Jesus our Redeemer and our Hope!