Worlds die and are born in a kiss...

Each friend represents a world in us,

a world not born until they arrive,

and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.

-Anais Nin

 

So true but the opposite is true too...sometimes those worlds die.

 

Relationships change, stuff doesn't work out, people give up, the hurt is too deep or the damage too severe to comprehend anything else than move away from the pain. I am not saying that is God's will but it is how it often unfolds.

 

I am reminded of the story of Naomi, Ruth and Orpah.

 

At a critical moment pregnant with pain from the past, uncertainty about the future, despair over the present; we see Naomi encouraging her daughter in laws to return to the life they have known and go back to their friends and families. She begs them to leave her for she says "The hand of the Lord has gone forth against me." The next verse says "They lifted up their voices and wept again and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her."

 

The suffering in the parting kiss is brutal to those who have tasted it's soul stinging touch. Tears and kisses are deceptive, they are not always what they seem. Sure it makes us feel good to receive them, they whisper promises but the reality is they are more often merely a wish or a dream than commitment. They speak of sentimentality but not covenant. They come gushing out when the one giving them has been indulging in some form of self serving romantic vision of the present.

 

You can be betrayed with a kiss.

 

Betrayed into thinking more of yourself than you are.

Betrayed into building a life on emotion and receiving instead of giving.

Betrayed into giving for something in return.

Betrayed into following pleasure in the form of man pleasing.

 

Ruth captures the true picture of love in the following verse:

Where you go, I will go.

Where you lodge, I will lodge.

Your people, will be my people.

Your God, will be my God.

 

I thank God for the Ruth's in my life. Those who have chosen to embrace the hardships, endure, fight through, forgive, pray and most importantly simply clung. You know who you are. Even in the midst of this hard season when many things have been so difficult; you have clung on to me, even when I have attempted to push you away. This season of trial has revealed more than my own heart, it has revealed yours as well.

 

Worlds have died and have been born in a simple kiss.