Staying Together

I’m coming with you.

I’m not leaving you alone.

We’ve been through heartache.

We’ve been through loss.

There have been dark days.

We are staying together.

My wounded heart, understands your heart.

We share a pain that is too great for others to understand.

We are staying together.

I could go and start over.

I could pretend none of this happened.

I can make a new life.

But you are my family.

Covenant brought us together.

Covenant will keep us together.

We will walk this road of unknown.

Where you go, I’m going.

Where you stay, I’m staying.

The community you find; will be my community too.

I’ll end my days, where you end yours.

We are staying together.

It might seem an unlikely pair. Ruth, the grieving widow and her mother-in- law Naomi, overcome by the loss of her husband and her children. Both mourning the same men with different deep pain. They had a bond. Ruth saw something in Naomi that made her worth following. She wasn’t going to leave her alone. Even when told she could choose her own path, she wouldn’t walk away.

She was family by heart

And they stayed together

Journeyed through the pain

To arms filled with sheaves of wheat

To the threshing floor

Right into the plans and purposes of God on high

Kinsman-Redeemer

Line of David

We are staying together.

Where you go, I will go.

I sometimes struggle with together as I tend to my fields of life.

My introvert heart that loves solitude, sometimes resents the commitment that comes with being together. It’s easier to go off alone. My small fortress, my tight circle of comfort holds me tight. Why would I want to venture out? I’m comfortable. I’m warm. I know where I belong; I know how to love from my current vantage point. Why would I need more? How could I give more? I don’t know if I can walk down that road with you, it might be hard. I might feel uncomfortable. It might mean work. I might not have what you need.

But Kinsman Redeemer calls.

Steps in.

Next of Kin.

He calls to me,

You need together.

He pulls me out. I can’t stay in my comfortable place because the world around me needs together and the relationships in my life can’t survive without my participation. I need to go where they go, no matter where the journey leads because relationship is a covenant. Relationship is an investment. Relationship is love lived loud. No matter the circumstances.

We can do things on our own.

But doing life together is better.

One Heart

One Mind

Together

Together we lift his name as we feel pain that we can’t explain.

Together we seek his face as we wander the fields and we don’t know why.

Together we change our world, as we lay vulnerable on the threshing floors.

I’m going on the journey with you.

We are staying together.