Ruth

Love Letter Eight: The Book of Ruth

God says, no matter what happens in your life, I can reach into your heart with the power to form you into someone who values Me above everyone and everything else. I am determined to reverse your values.

My plan has a happy ending, a wonderful finale far better than you can imagine, but the happy ending is only for the holy. I am committed to your holiness at any cost to Me, required by My nature, and at any cost to you, required by yours, and on whatever timetable is necessary. There are intractable obstacles I must overcome to make you holy. I deal with three in Ruth: natural disadvantages that to you seem more important to overcome than an unholy value system, shattered dreams that bring so much pain into your life that it's difficult to welcome the opportunity they provide for new levels of trust, and material resources that make it easy to disguise narcissism behind non-sacrificial generosity.

Ruth's life is a they-all-lived-happily-ever-after story, but it is not a parable of My power to make life comfortable; it is a parable of My power to make people holy. Know this: holiness and only holiness brings joy. No problem in your life, whether difficult problems such as disadvantages and loss or agreeable problems such as wealth, can stop My plan. Faith and hope together release love. And love is holiness. Hear what I'm saying in this love letter: no matter how dark the world around you, no matter how difficult the world inside you, My plan overcomes all obstacles to holiness.


(from 66 Love Letters: A Conversation with God that Invites You into His Story by Dr. Larry Crabb, ©2009.)