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Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: ROAD (05/19/22)
(WOMAN IN BIBLICAL COSTUME ADDRESSES THE AUDIENCE)
Let me tell you a story of a road with two journeys -- one going from Bethlehem to Moab and one going from Moab to Bethlehem. One road, two journeys,10 years apart.

It all began when my family and I fled the famine in Bethlehem. Did you know that Bethlehem means House of Bread? Such irony. I left Bethlehem full, full of family: a husband and two sons; and ten years later I returned, empty.

I hope the road was pleasant as you travelled here. The road--those words bring up so many memories. Funny thing about roads--I hear that in your time you have things called one-way roads. And if you go in the wrong direction there are signs yelling DO NOT ENTER, WRONG WAY.

That seems so foreign to me---for how can a road go only one way? Although there was a time that I thought that I had gone the wrong way. Leaving the House of Bread? I kept wanting to look over my shoulder as we walked away from Bethlehem until I remembered Lot's wife....

And so we went to Moab...out of fear? Lack of trust in God? It almost seemed that God was punishing me for going to Moab. Tragedy after tragedy after tragedy slammed into my heart. First, my husband died but I still had my two boys and their dear wives. But then God took my sons too.

I don't know what I would have done without Ruth and Orpah. But I didn't belong in Moab. I never did. And then I got the news--the famine was over! And that road from Bethlehem to Moab became my road home. To my real home.

My dear daughters-in-law clung to me with tears when I insisted they leave me. For them the road to Bethlehem would be a road to childless widowhood, or so I thought. With a city full of good Jewish virgins to choose from no Bethlehem bachelor would marry Orpah or Ruth.

I tell them I have no more sons for them to marry and even if I got pregnant that night (heaven forbid) would they wait for those sons to grow up? And so I said the two hardest words I've ever spoken to my darling girls.

"Go home."

And the second time I urged Orpah, she kissed me and returned to Moab. I waited for Ruth to complete my self-induced abandonment.

But she said to me, “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. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.” Ruth 1:16-17 NIV.

I've heard that in your time sometimes a bride and groom will utter those words as part of their wedding vows. Imagine a daughter-in-law saying those words to her mother-in-law? Instead of all those horrible mother-in-law jokes I hear they tell in your time.

So Ruth accompanied me on the road to Bethlehem --a road home? But what kind of home remained? And I must admit I was still a little bitter when we reached Bethlehem. The women exclaimed, “Can this be Naomi?”

“Don’t call me Naomi,” I told them. “Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter. I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The Lord has afflicted me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.” Ruth 1:20-21 NIV.

You may have tried to change your own name, born a child full of promise, but you think you've gone down one too many wrong roads. I hear that in your time there are roads that say no U-turns allowed. But be sure of this, God always allows U-turns.

I won't tell you Ruth's story, that's hers to tell But I will tell you that our God is so good that He filled my empty arms with a grandchild. God not only allows U-turns, He used my U-turn for my daughter-in-law to become the grandmother of King David and an ancestor of the Messiah. God used my U-turn, won’t you let Him use yours?
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This article has been read 586 times
Member Comments
Member
Date
Noel Mitaxa 
05/27/22
Graphic and engaging style that would readily resonate with an audience. Well done.
Jennifer Percell
05/27/22
Great thoughts on where God takes us! Well Done!
Philippa Geaney
05/29/22
Creative thoughts involving the topic. Great handling. My daily reading was the Book of Ruth today😀., so your writing was especially interesting. Thank you.
Robert Rutaagi 
05/31/22

What a splendid entry! The topicality, the grammar, the diction, the tone and content are all good - and the flow. Wow! Well-done. But! The repetitious temptation - ''road,'' obviously with good intentions - emphasis. However, FW.com guidelines, unless they have changed recently, advise against repeating the 'topic' and 'title' in the body of the entry. Check on that. I will, too, just in case. Congratulations!