Marilyn's Mussings

Entreat me not to leave you, Or to turn back from following after you; For wherever you go, I will go; And wherever you lodge, I will lodge; Your people shall be my people, And your God, my God. Ruth 1:16 NKJV During the late 1970's and early 1980's, this was a much loved scripture chosen many times to be read at weddings. As a young woman, I too loved it and thought it to be romantic. The fact that it was in the Bible made it all the better. While these words are beautiful when read aloud and are certainly fitting for a wedding, the context of the scripture is not about a marriage relationship at all. They are words spoken by a woman to her mother-in-law. The life story of that woman, Ruth and her mother-in-law, Naomi, is written in the Old Testament book of Ruth. God used the lives of these real women to tell about the coming Christ, our Redeemer, who would come years later from the lineage of Ruth. Naomi, her husband and two sons found themselves in the midst of a fami...

From the moment they put him in your arms, he captured your heart. You wondered how it was possible to instantly love him so much. But you did, and it was wonderfully satisfying. You were forever a willing captive to that love. You took that precious blue bundle home and showered him with love, kisses and snuggles. The two of you began a journey in which your lives would forever be intertwined.  By the time he was a toddler, he was your little man. You cared for him, prayed for him and supported him in every aspect of his life. You were there when he fell off his big wheel, kicked the soccer ball and struggled with his math facts. When he asked Jesus to come into his heart, you were there too and you got to watch him grow in his faith. You prayed him through middle school and prayed for the woman he would marry. In what seemed like a blink of the eye, your little man became a responsible, accomplished grown man.  Somewhere close to the same time that you were snuggling with yo...

While I was teaching at Jacksonville State University, students many times would wait after class to ask questions. One day a young man approached me with quite a different question. "You are a Christian, aren't you?" he said. During the conversation that followed, I learned that he too was a believer in Jesus Christ and we formed a friendship. He had an elderly grandmother who lived in Gadsden, where I lived, and she was a member of Twelfth Street Baptist Church, where my membership was. She had been a shut-in for some time and I had never met her.  A few years after John graduated, his grandmother died and I went to the funeral home hoping to see him and offer my condolences. I walked into the parlor where her family was receiving friends and did not see John. I had not so much as seen a picture of her or any other member of the family. I suddenly panicked and wondered if I had walked into the wrong place! That's a little bit how I felt this morning when we went to ...