Where You Go

Ruth 1:16

But Ruth 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. 

In the book of Ruth, Naomi urges her daughters-in-law to return to their homeland after their husbands (Naomi’s sons) died. Orpah agrees to go home, but Ruth wants to stay with Naomi and follow her back to her country. By doing this, Ruth also chooses to accept God, who Naomi loves.

As a child I remember playing games like follow the leader and mother-may-I. The object was to mimic the exact movements of the child in charge of the game. If you did not repeat the actions correctly, you were booted out of the game, to sit on the sidelines and watch while your buddies tried to follow.

Chris Tomlin sings a song with a chorus that says, “Where you go, I'll go --Where you stay, I'll stay -- When you move, I'll move -- I will follow you.” He is singing to Jesus and making a commitment to follow wherever he wants him to. When Jesus asks us to follow him, he knows we may not mimic the exact steps that he does, and he knows we may fall. But he does not sit us on the sidelines; instead he picks us up and asks us to continue on our path with him. Where he goes I’ll go. I want to follow him.