The Story: Week 9 - Ruth is Redeemed

The first house that Jackie and I ever purchased was a foreclosure.  If you aren't familiar with a foreclosure, be thankful.  Basically, the previous owners couldn't afford it any longer and so the bank took it back.

When we purchased it, it was in rough shape.  The picture to the right is the living room.  The floors were warped and buckled where the bank hadn't shut of the water and a leak had ruined them.  Pipes had burst in the upstairs bathroom and had ruined the floors in the living room, two closets (one in the living room and one downstairs) and a lot of wall space.  Additionally, the walls in the living room needed repaired and the drywall was separating.  If this wasn't enough, tile floor in the dining room was ruined... the appliances in the kitchen were gone... and the previous owners had even taken the furnace with them when they left.

To make a long story short: The house was unlivable.  It was worthless.  It was trash.

But we bought it anyway.  After 60+ days of work... new plumbing... new carpet throughout the whole house... new walls... new paint... new tile in the kitchen and dining room... new appliances... and a new furnace and A LOT of help from friends.  We moved in.  And we lived there for nearly 2 years.

Before: The house was worthless.
After: The house was our home.
Before: The house had no value.
After: The house was our most prized possession.

I couldn't help but think of our house as I was reading about Ruth this week in the Story.  Here was a woman who was worthless to her society.  Her husband was dead.  She was past the age of being valuable as a wife.  She had no children and no job and no house and no possessions and no future.  Nothing at all.  Worthless.

But God didn't leave her there.  See our God is in the reclamation business.  God is used to taking something that's worthless and making it valuable again.  God does that with our lives everyday.  He comes in and cleans out the sin and brokenness and replaces it with his holiness and his fullness.

God did that for Ruth.
He took her from worthless to worthy.

In fact, without Ruth... We would have had no Jesus.  Jesus came from the line of David... David's father was Jesse... Jesse's father was Obed... Obed's father was Boaz and his mother was Ruth.

The picture to your left is the same living room as above... After it was redeemed.  When we are back in North Aurora, we drive by our old house. People live there.  People call it home.  Because it was redeemed.

You might think, "God can't do anything with me.  I'm so broken and messed up."  But realize: That's actually God's specialty.

JC



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