This week we’re closing out a devotion series on the Book of Ruth.

Chains are all around us, and I’m not talking about fast-food chain restaurants.

I mostly interact with chains on my old bicycle and mighty little chainsaw. Chains are also found on

motorcycles and as part of the engine timing system in some car engines. Chain letters used to be big

until chain emails took over (and if you forward this devotion to ten friends you might receive a gift

certificate to a popular restaurant in the mail, but probably not).

There are literal and figurative chains that can bind us.

In 1988 even I, firmly ensconced in the bottom tenth percentile of flashiness, briefly wore a gold chain

because I was so inherently cool that a minimum threshold of bling was compulsory. And of course,

Aretha Franklin famously sang about a chain of fools.

All these different chains have at least one thing in common, which is that they are only effective if

every link is in place. Here’s another sort of chain, and I’m going King James on you here because a list

like this works best with “begat”…

Now these are the generations of Pharez: Pharez begat Hezron, and Hezron begat Ram, and Ram

begat Amminadab, and Amminadab begat Nahshon, and Nahshon begat Salmon, and Salmon begat

Boaz, and Boaz begat Obed, and Obed begat Jesse, and Jesse begat David. (Ruth 4:18-22 KJV)

This chain of genealogy is historically significant to us as Christians because Jesus appears farther down

in the chain. The beautiful story of Ruth, Naomi, Boaz, and Obed is part of that chain, so they are part of

our heritage as Christians. They are links in the chain of God’s family from the dawn of time right

through to us.

But our chain keeps going. Think about those in the far distant future. God willing, a sweet young boy or

girl is growing up in a family of people a hundred years from now and we’ll never meet them this side of

eternity. Maybe they are literal family through a long series of “begats,” or maybe they are family as

brothers and sisters in Christ.

Either way, the link in the chain from Adam and Eve, Ruth and Boaz, Obed, and on through Jesus to

those in the future - is us.

Be strong. With God’s help, we’re holding together the past and the future.

By Mark Stuart

Mark is the husband of Laura, father of Shelby and Jacob, and father-in-law of Bailey.