Extraordinary Courage

How was your week? Many widows face serious challenges this winter---shoveling out heavy snow only to have the snowplow rudely fill it back in, cars that need to be replaced, dangerous temperatures, worries about how they'll pay their heating bill next month, not to mention the constant ache and loneliness of grief. Widowhood is hard!
I hope we can borrow from the courage and strength of two widows in the Bible today. Their journey, like yours, required extraordinary courage and faith and spotlights reason #5 in Why The Book of Ruth is for Widows-- It shows two widows who did have extraordinary courage and faith. That's means widows today can too!
♥ ferree

(Postcards from the Widows' Path, page 34-35)

Dr. Charles Dyer, Professor-at-Large at Moody Bible Institute and host of The Land and the Book radio program told me this about Naomi and Ruth's journey from Moab.

“The leg of the journey by the Dead Sea would have been very difficult. Between the eastern shore of the Dead Sea (as one left Moab) and the base of the Judean Wilderness at Engedi there was no drinkable water. Travelers would have needed to fill up their jars or waterskins with water and then carry all the water they would need for the next four or five hours in the heat of the desert. For two poor women traveling alone, it meant that they probably were able to carry little else with them...

My admiration for Ruth and Naomi only grows stronger as I realize how difficult this journey really was. It likely took them a day to walk from Moab down to the Dead Sea, a day to cross the Dead Sea and walk to Engedi, a day to climb from Engedi up into the wilderness of Judea, and another day to walk through the wilderness to Bethlehem. Four long, hard days having to carry food and water, four days of steep climbs over treacherous terrain, four days surviving in the area where David was forced to kill lions and bears as he watched over his sheep (I Samuel 17:34-36). These were two tough women!”



Aerial view of Engedi and the terrain that Ruth and Naomi would have walked
http://www.bibleplaces.com/engedi.htm