musings on ruth

musings on ruth

5 Dec 2024

I started the year reading the book of Ruth (I even mentioned it in this post) and now that we're approaching the end of the year and advent season begins I've found myself drawn to it again. The parallels between two stories of two women in the city of Bethlehem is always striking but it hits different at this time of year.

The book of Ruth begins with no king on the throne in Israel and it ends with the genealogy of a king, which will lead to the King of Kings it starts with barrenness and ends with provision. In the same fields where Ruth meets Boaz the angels will proclaim to the shepherds the Good News because in both stories, a baby is born in Bethlehem, Obed to redeem Naomi, and Jesus to redeem the world.

Biblically, Bethlehem has always been a place of redemption and provision. Yet right now, Bethlehem would love some redemption - redemption from war and unrest and hunger. Bethlehem, House of Bread, where a broken family came with no bread and ends with the promise of the Bread of Life. Yet as we look on, the city known as the House of Bread, doesn't have any bread. When Jesus was a child He and His family had to flee to Egypt to escape the persecution of a king who was adamant to wipe him out, much like how we look upon Gaza today and see its inhabitants doing the same as they flee or withstand the ongoing attack from Israel. A lot of the time we find it so easy to Nativity-ify Bethlehem but the fact of the matter is that a simple Google search will tell you that Bethlehem still exists and it's located in the West Bank, an area under constant fire from an Israel far removed from the one we sing about at Christmas.

I find it tricky these days to sing carols where we glorify the name of Israel, but Zion, the place where God's presence resides is no longer a place, or a tribe, or a nation, it's within his people. Israel forfeited their right to that long ago. While biblical Israel and the Israel we have today are two different nations, Bethlehem is the same. This discomfort is something I'm praying into right now because becoming jaded with Christmas is really not something I want to struggle with.

I've also found it helpful to support organisations working in conflict-affected areas such as Palestine. One of my favourites is Doctors Without Borders. As we give and receive gifts this Christmas season, consider donating to help those currently having a less-than-peaceful Christmas.

They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace.

Jeremiah 6:14 

I use studies from Daily Grace Co to really delve deep into what the Bible is saying and I LOVE their book specific studies which is where I picked up most of this Ruth content from so definitely check them out - I've learned so much!

What's in my Travel Make Up bag

What's in my Travel Make Up bag

23 Apr 2024

Because I live in Belfast and my office is in Coventry, I travel a lot. I come over to the office around once a month which means I am an expert at travelling light and packing my hand luggage for one night. 

jehovah rapha - my god restores

jehovah rapha - my god restores

15 Jan 2024

I like to start each new year with a truth about God that I'm choosing to proclaim - kind of like an anthem for the year. This is usually something that brings itself to the fore in the early days of the year - God saying "This is who I am. Embrace that".

a long weekend in italy

a long weekend in italy

9 Jan 2024

Back in September, I took a little trip to Italy with my friend Mariana who recently started learning Italian and wanted an excuse to practice and I am never going to say no to a trip anywhere, but specifically a trip to Italy. We weren't very particular about where specifically we wanted to go - just as long as she could speak Italian, I can read it but I struggle conversationally so she did most of the communicating!

I've been before (I wrote a whole post about my Naples trip) but this time we headed north to Milan. We really just used Milan as a base because it has great transport networks so it makes it super easy to navigate and visit lots of different places which we definitely took advantage of. 

We flew into Malpensa Airport which is connected to Milan by a train that you can get from the airport itself which makes it very handy - just as long as you don't get stuck behind queues of people who don't know how to use ticket machines. We almost missed two trains in the time it took for us to buy our tickets in literally 30 seconds so I don't know what was taking the others so long!

every book I read in 2023 ranked

every book I read in 2023 ranked

4 Jan 2024

I mentioned in my last post that I didn't read as much this year as in some other years. Also since I haven't posted on here in over a year, you're also unaware of what I did read since I last told you about The Kingdoms by Natasha Pulley which I read back in August 2022! 

I thought in order to rectify that I would do a whistlestop tour through the 24 books that I read in 2023 ranked in order of my least favourite to my favourite. Who knows, maybe you'll find something to pick up this year.  I also reread The Invisible Life of Addie Larue by VE Schwab this year for a book club which is one of my all-time favourite books but I didn't want to include it in this list but just know that she's still perched nicely at the top.

I used The Storygraph to help me with this list - it's my favourite way to keep track of the books I read each year (you can follow me here).

a new year, a refresh

a new year, a refresh

1 Jan 2024

 "A blank page, a rewrite

A black cat in the streetlights

An open door"   

- There It Goes, Maisie Peters 

Well hello. It's sure been a while since I've shown my face on here. I wish I could say that I had some fun and exciting reason as to why that is but truly I just have not felt like writing. Every time I would try to sit down and write a post, it would just end up unfinished and remain in the drafts until the end of time. I even bought a new camera at the start of the year with the hope of upgrading the content I was producing but what actually ended up happening is that I've done even less than usual. 2023 clearly was just one of those years. 

As the last year drew to a close I spent a lot of time reminiscing, not only on this year but also on all the others in recent memory and I was thinking about just how much things have changed, not necessarily even for the better so I'm starting 2024 with the best of intentions - that this is going to be my best year regardless of what it throws at me. I'm going to choose to be thankful and choose joy in circumstances. But I'm also going to put myself back out there, into the world both physically and creatively, starting with kickstarting this old blog again.

In order to hold myself accountable I thought the best thing to do would be to share some of my intentions for this year publically to give me the little kick up the rear I need to actually step up and pursue my goals.