Honor Your Parents???Sýnishorn

Naomi has lost her husband and her two adult sons, leaving her and her two daughters-in-law bereaved and helpless. 

The older widow urges her daughters-in-law to go back to their hometowns so they could, perhaps, get married again and pick up the pieces of their lives. Naomi, herself, planned to return to her hometown of Bethlehem. 

One of her daughters-in-law, Orpah, takes Naomi’s advice and she returns home, but her other daughter-in-law, Ruth, sticks with Naomi.

Today, take a moment to notice Ruth’s loyalty to Naomi. It’s almost an unreasonable or illogical loyalty.

Naomi didn’t tell her to return home as a casual suggestion. Naomi urges her not once, not twice - but four times. 

But here’s the thing: Ruth looked beyond Naomi’s words to her heart. She saw that her mother-in-law was putting on a brave face. Ruth honored Naomi by demonstrating empathy.

Today, can we honor our parents by choosing empathy over indifference?

Let’s look from the principle in the Word to the Person of Jesus. The Bible says that we do not have a High Priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses. Jesus doesn’t say that our problems are ours to handle. He took on our problems. He who knew no sin became sin for us. We are called to be imitators of our sympathetic God. But we can’t do it on our own and so we pray:

Lord, by the power of the Holy Spirit, transform my bent to selfishness into selfless empathy.