Are We Sticking Like Glue?

Are We Sticking Like Glue?

True love is demonstrated more by continuing devotion than a momentary kiss. After their husbands died, Naomi encouraged her daughters-in-law to “return home.” Orpah obeyed, gave her a kiss and departed. But Ruth gave Naomi a sign of enduring relationship: “Ruth clung to her.” The next two verses graphically reveal the hearts of these two women. Orpah returned immediately “to her people and her gods,” while Ruth said, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God.”

When we are inclined to place a lot of importance on a kiss, a hug or a handshake, we should remember how our Lord was betrayed – with a kiss. All too often those Sunday morning signs of affection for the Lord, His people and His interests may be nothing more significant than the kisses of Orpah. It’s who we cling to all week and who we go with daily, that tells whether or not there is any of the love and desire of Ruth in us. Are we making His people our people on a daily basis? These are the true signs of devoted clinging, which means “sticking like glue.”

Remember, our Lord values faithfulness demonstrated by daily effort and commitment much more than easy and momentary expressions of affection. Consider His response to the woman who complimented Him from the crowd: “He said, ‘Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it’” (Lk. 11:28). Consider also that the distinguishing mark of those who were “called Christians first” was that they clung to the Lord “with all their hearts” (Acts 11:26,23).

By Larry Ondrejack