“I know God will not give me anything I can’t handle. I just wish He didn’t trust me so much.” – Mother Teresa

When I became a Christian at the age of 15, one of the songs that we sang quite frequently at our church was, “I’ll Go Where You Want Me To Go.” At the time, and being a new Christian, I did not realize what that song truly meant–at least for my life.

As I walked my journey with Him, He began to reveal the path that He had for me. At times, that path took a turn here and there, but it was through His grace that He taught me how to “go where He wanted me to go.” My husband and I have relied on His words to guide and direct us for over 50 years.

As I began to look at Ruth’s life and the difficulties she had as a young widow and how bleak her life must have been after the death of her husband, Naomi’s son, she made a decision that would impact not only her life but the lives of generations to come. She was given a new life with Naomi in a foreign land where she met and married Boaz–a kinsman-redeemer.

God had a plan for Ruth. She and Boaz had a son, Obed, who was the father of Jesse, the father of David. Ruth 4:18 gives us the family line of David as:

“Perez was the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram, Ram the father of Amminadab, Amminadab the father of Nahshon,m Nahshon the father of Salmon, Salmon the father of Boaz, Boaz the father of Obed, Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David.”

It was through this line that Jesus, our Savior, was born over 2000 years ago. That was a definite, awesome plan that God foretold and it began with a woman named Ruth who trusted her heart to follow her mother-in-law Naomi to Bethlehem. She was a determined young women. When Naomi tried to convince Ruth to stay in Moab, she replied: “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 anything but death separates you and me.”–Ruth 16:17.

One of the greatest lessons we can learn from the story of Ruth is that “her past and where she came from” did not define who Ruth was and later became after she met and married Boaz. God’s plans for Ruth were bigger than she could have ever imagined when she followed Naomi.

God has a plan for each and every one of us. I know personally I have struggled at times when there was a “turn here and there along the pathway” but when I trusted God and believed that He would “direct my path” He never failed me.

That is what He wants for each us when we say, “I’ll go where you want me to go Dear Lord.” May He richly bless you during this Christmas season and touch you in your mind, body, and spirit; and that His hands, His words, and His grace be upon you.

Blessings,

Yvonne