The Art of Clinging

By: Sharon Hughes

We are living in a time where there is a rapid spread and unraveling of a lot of things. At the start of our day, we may feel like we’re looking up towards a snow capped mountain watching a powerful unruly avalanche of sickness, racial injustice, despair, financial distress and relational division rushing straight towards us at an alarming speed. The looming advancement of pain, suffering and discouragement seems as though it will inevitably knock us down without the option to get back up.

Thankfully the Bible points us to two women who may have felt similarly. In the book of Ruth, we observe Ruth and Naomi whose lives had been turned up-side-down. Their husbands died, there was a famine, there were wars between races and religions and there was uncertainty about how to make financial ends meet. Not to mention they were vulnerable to constant emotional turmoil. However, in the face of “all the things” Ruth decided to cling to Naomi. (Ruth 3:16)

Webster’s dictionary defines cling as, “to hold fast by grasping or winding around to avoid falling.” Ruth decided that by clinging to Naomi, they would be stronger together than apart. But what did clinging look like on a practical level for Ruth and Naomi and can we reclaim this art of clinging to one another in 2020?

In Session two of Summer in the City, Mrs. Margaret Green referenced the Hebrew word hesed which embodies the kindness, the fierce loyalty, and genuine love and concern that Ruth showed Naomi. They were an unlikely pair. They were different ages, clashed culturally and at the start, worshipped different gods. But Ruth’s choice to live out hesed was a God-enabled response that looked beyond all of their differences. Ruth could have been tight fisted to all the ways that kept them in their own camps but God gave Ruth the supernatural strength she needed.

Ruth’s initial decision to cling to Naomi did not mean the rest of the story was a joy-ride. Often times, it was messy, full of doubt and an emotional rollercoaster. Ruth weeps two different times when Naomi tries to release her back to Moab. When Naomi finally accepts Ruth and they arrive in Bethlehem together, Naomi doesn’t acknowledge Ruth’s kindness. Instead she claimed there was nothing but calamity in her life (Ruth 3:21). Naomi was blinded by her grief but Ruth was steadfast. Sometimes clinging to someone else means they don’t want to cling to you.

Ruth’s desire to cling to Naomi was physical in nature. She traveled with her, lived with her and ate with her. Naomi’s physical needs became Ruth’s physical needs as they strategized about how to put food on the table. In our pursuit of clinging to one another how often do we settle for a text or a hashtag? “Praying for you, friend!” #yougotthis #gowithgod. Do we allow our lives to be disrupted enough so that our physical realities become entwined and interdependent like Ruth and Naomi?

The beautiful part of this story is that Ruth and Naomi grew in relationship with one another and ultimately were a part of a redemptive narrative that was bigger than themselves. I imagine them sitting at the dinner table chatting, laughing, grieving and dreaming with one another. Clinging to one another was difficult, uncertain and full of grief at times but as Boaz entered the picture, God redeemed their story by reminding them their hope was in the Lord.

To cling is not to annoyingly attach yourself to someone else like a fly on a wall and certainly isn’t about having a savior complex in someone else’s life. In fact, clinging to one another reminds us of how much more our Savior has clung to us.

“For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels or rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God.” (Romans 8:38)

As we humbly cling to one another we remember we are weak but find strength and hope in our good God.

Sister, who are you clinging to? Are you willing to look past race, religion, social status, just as Christ did for us, to stand with someone in the face of darkness and pain? As we see the cascading force of sin and brokenness do we believe that God is holding us steady as we hold on to one another, trusting his redemption is at work? By God’s grace, by His power He enables us to pursue the redemptive art of clinging to one another, no matter how messy, for His good and for His glory.