Ruth 4 – Fighting against our circumstances

So Ruth becomes the great grandmother of David; she is blessed by God by her descendants.

I’ve been talking to a high schooler at youth group for a few weeks now. He is a bright kid who has not grown up in church, his parents are not Christians as far as I know, and he is just beginning to explore the ideas of God, Jesus, and Christianity.

He’s been asking me all the big questions; but sometime he made a comment that was a little unusual. He asked, how can anyone be responsible for their actions when they are product of their situation. He went on to illustrate: if one kid grows up in a house of meth addicts and one kid grows up in a house where the parents go to church, why is the first kid a bad kid and the second kid a good kid.

I thought that was a profound and significant question and we have only begun to explore it. While I do believe that regardless of our situation we are all responsible for the choices we make, I have to admit that he has a point; we all come from different circumstances and to some extent we are a product of the circumstances we were born into.

To phrase it in a more “churchy” way: the sins of the parents will go down to their children (even to the second and third generation).

Coming back to the story of Ruth we can view this principle in a more positive light. The goodness, holiness, and God-centeredness of Ruth and Boaz was be passed down (to some extent) to their descendants. The holiness of the parents was passed down to the children.

In a nutshell, my kids are probably going to be more similar to me than dissimilar. I have a responsibility to think before I act and to do my best to pass on the best of the legacy that was passed on to me.

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