Spiritual Security

Ruth — with a little help from Teddy Roosevelt and the Golden Gate Bridge — teaches us how to recognize different types of security … and which kinds are the most valuable.

“The Lord grant that you may find security …”

—Ruth 1:9a

 

“The land of opportunity.” That’s where they were bound. Times were tough. Money was short. Work was hard to come by. And so the four of them — husband, wife and two sons — pulled up stakes and journeyed to a far country.

They came to stay. They did what they had to do to fit in. Difficult as it was, they learned the language. They mastered mystifying social customs. That immigrant family labored hard, and, in time, their new neighbors accepted them. The new land treated them well. In return, they became model citizens.

The two boys grew fast. It wasn’t long before they began talking and dressing and acting like any other children of that land. To their mother and father — their own flesh and blood — the two sons sometimes seemed like strangers. It was hard to watch them grow up without the traditions of the old country. But the parents were...