Ruth
My daughter, Elizabeth Larkin -- for those of you who don't know her -- is one of my favorite people. She (though she stubbornly argues with me every time I say this) is one of the most insightful people in the world. Even if she were not my daughter, she would still be one of my favorite people on the planet. Why do I bring her up, you ask? {Thanks for asking} Well....
Beth and I have decided for the next season to write our blogs "together" ~ that is, we are going to tackle the same topic and write blogs and put links to each other's blogs up in each of our blogs. (wow...that is an awkward sentence! Hope you get what I mean.)
Beth started first. She actually 'read my mind' ~ I had also planned to mention the first time we, Beth and I, read and studied the book of Ruth and the fun and funny mnemonics we used to remember the funny names in this book. Now I won't of course. You can go read about it in her blog. Here is the link to her blog. http://mymusingonlife.blogspot.com
I guess this is going to be interesting.
So, what we decided to read and write about is the story of David the King. His story is long. One of the things that fascinates me about David's story is that in order to read the whole story you must read several books (And...don't worry, we aren't, going to cover every word of all of these books) in the Old Testament: 1st and 2nd Samuel, 1 Kings, 1 Chronicles, Psalms (of course) . . . and Ruth.
Hummm ~ Ruth? Ruth is the beginning of the David story. Ruth was David's great-grandmother: Ruth was married to a man named Boaz and . . .
Boaz the father of Obed, [making Boaz David's great-grandfather]
Obed the father of Jesse, [making Obed David's grandfather]
and Jesse the father of David.
(Ruth 4:21-22)
I wonder how many of you have and know your great-grandparents? I don't. I didn't even get to know my grandparents. But, wonderful to me, my husband's mother IS a great-grandmother. She has 14 great-grandchildren. Just one of the lines (great-grandchild to great-grandmother) goes Lucy, my daughter's daughter; Beth, our daughter and Lucy's mother; Ed and I, Lucy's grandparents; and Lucille Meyer, my husband's mother and Lucy's great-grandmother. Lucy gets to have parents, grandparents and a great-grandparent. Lucille Meyer is in her 80's, but she still lives on her own, makes peanut brittle every Christmas, talks to us regularly on the phone (she lives in Oklahoma). She came a few months ago for a visit to see her little 'name-sake' great-granddaughter. Why do I mention this? Well, I think that in the same way Lucy will get to know her great-gramma, that David got to know Ruth, his great-grandmother. I suspects she may have held and rocked him. I think she may have told him her wonderful story. (grandchildren love it when grandparents tell them stories) I think ~ and yes, I know that it cannot be proven as scripture does not say this ~ but I think that this woman was one of the influences of David's life. I think her story matters and clearly the writers of Ruth did too...the book of Ruth ends with the link from Boaz to David.
And, besides ... Ruth is a great book! It is a charming, multi-layered love story. It is full of drama and poignancy, and sweetness. I love the story, I love the characters. If you have not read it ~ go ahead, do it now. It is a short, easy to read book. You can find it in the Old Testament tucked between Judges and 1 Samuel. You can probably read it with a cup of coffee and finish the book before you finish the coffee. And I bet you'll sit pondering Ruth, and Boaz and Naomi while you sip another cup or two.
Tomorrow...the story begins.
Beth and I have decided for the next season to write our blogs "together" ~ that is, we are going to tackle the same topic and write blogs and put links to each other's blogs up in each of our blogs. (wow...that is an awkward sentence! Hope you get what I mean.)
Beth started first. She actually 'read my mind' ~ I had also planned to mention the first time we, Beth and I, read and studied the book of Ruth and the fun and funny mnemonics we used to remember the funny names in this book. Now I won't of course. You can go read about it in her blog. Here is the link to her blog. http://mymusingonlife.blogspot.com
I guess this is going to be interesting.
So, what we decided to read and write about is the story of David the King. His story is long. One of the things that fascinates me about David's story is that in order to read the whole story you must read several books (And...don't worry, we aren't, going to cover every word of all of these books) in the Old Testament: 1st and 2nd Samuel, 1 Kings, 1 Chronicles, Psalms (of course) . . . and Ruth.
Hummm ~ Ruth? Ruth is the beginning of the David story. Ruth was David's great-grandmother: Ruth was married to a man named Boaz and . . .
Boaz the father of Obed, [making Boaz David's great-grandfather]
Obed the father of Jesse, [making Obed David's grandfather]
and Jesse the father of David.
(Ruth 4:21-22)
I wonder how many of you have and know your great-grandparents? I don't. I didn't even get to know my grandparents. But, wonderful to me, my husband's mother IS a great-grandmother. She has 14 great-grandchildren. Just one of the lines (great-grandchild to great-grandmother) goes Lucy, my daughter's daughter; Beth, our daughter and Lucy's mother; Ed and I, Lucy's grandparents; and Lucille Meyer, my husband's mother and Lucy's great-grandmother. Lucy gets to have parents, grandparents and a great-grandparent. Lucille Meyer is in her 80's, but she still lives on her own, makes peanut brittle every Christmas, talks to us regularly on the phone (she lives in Oklahoma). She came a few months ago for a visit to see her little 'name-sake' great-granddaughter. Why do I mention this? Well, I think that in the same way Lucy will get to know her great-gramma, that David got to know Ruth, his great-grandmother. I suspects she may have held and rocked him. I think she may have told him her wonderful story. (grandchildren love it when grandparents tell them stories) I think ~ and yes, I know that it cannot be proven as scripture does not say this ~ but I think that this woman was one of the influences of David's life. I think her story matters and clearly the writers of Ruth did too...the book of Ruth ends with the link from Boaz to David.
And, besides ... Ruth is a great book! It is a charming, multi-layered love story. It is full of drama and poignancy, and sweetness. I love the story, I love the characters. If you have not read it ~ go ahead, do it now. It is a short, easy to read book. You can find it in the Old Testament tucked between Judges and 1 Samuel. You can probably read it with a cup of coffee and finish the book before you finish the coffee. And I bet you'll sit pondering Ruth, and Boaz and Naomi while you sip another cup or two.
Tomorrow...the story begins.
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