Blue Thread Life: Recent Episodes
Adéle Booysen
Life is full of distractions. At Blue Thread Life®, we create tools to help Christians look past these distractions and see God’s presence: the blue thread throughout every day. Living with this awareness opens the door to experiencing life with God as an epic adventure.
What is goodabout Good Friday? Listen to today’s reading and decide.
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If you were to be at the table with Jesus and his disciples on the night he was to be betrayed, where do you imagine yourself sitting? Are you scooting as close as you can get to hear what Jesus is saying and to ask him the questions burning in your heart?
Those in the room were celebrating the Passover meal. In case you’re not familiar with the stories in the Bible, or in case you need a refresher, here’s a quick overview:
- The Old Testament follows the adventures and history of one family, the family of Abraham.
- Abraham’s great-grandson Joseph had been sold to Egyptian slave traders by some of his brothers. Though his brothers intended to harm him, God used this for their good. When there was a famine in Israel, Joseph—who had since risen to a position of power in Egypt—was able to save his people. Which is how the Israelites ended up in Egypt.
- Their small clan grew fast and became a threat to the Egyptians, who changed their status from guests to slaves. For 400 years, they worked as slaves, until Moses confronted the Pharaoh, saying, “Let my people go.” But who’d let 2 million slaves go just like that? Despite Moses calling forth plagues, Pharaoh dug in his heals.
- But then God told Moses that each family should take a perfect lamb and prepare what they are to call the Passover meal. They should take some of the blood of the lamb and paint it on the door frame. That night, God moved through Egypt and killed the firstborn of every family in Egypt. Those whose homes were marked by the blood were not only saved, they were then freed from slavery.
- In the events around the Passover table in today’s reading, Jesus washes the disciples’ feet. This is more than an act of servant leadership. It’s about forgiveness. And it’s about brining new life. It was a precursor to the events that would unfold in the next 48 hours, where he would be killed and then come back to life—events that would change our lives forever, allowing you and me to walk into freedom!
As you listen to today’s reading and prayer, consider Jesus’ invitation to wash your feet, to wash away whatever it is that you’re holding onto, believing that Jesus couldn’t possibly forgive you. He can. And he will. I invite you to scoot up closer and pour out your heart to him today.
If you could be around that table with Jesus, what would you be asking him?
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… and the truth will set you free.
That statement of Jesus has been used in ways that don’t represent the original intent. Listen to today’s reading, where Jesus talks about who he is, how how know that truth shall in fact set you free.
Place yourself in the shoes of the political leaders. Who do you think Jesus is?
Next, think like a Pharisee or one of the other religious leaders of the time. What would your feelings be toward Jesus?
Finally, put yourself in the shoes of Jesus’ disciples. How are you feeling about the stir your Master is causing in Jerusalem?
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Since it’s Holy Week, we ponder the gravity of Jesus’ death and resurrection.
Today’s reading and prayer is centered around the questions people had about Jesus. Was he a political leader? Was he the savior that the Jewish scriptures had prophesied would come? The one they have been waiting for?
Today, consider, who do YOU say Jesus is?
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Since it’s Holy Week, we ponder the gravity of Jesus’ death and resurrection. For us, the natural progression is life to death. In Christ, it becomes death to life! Today’s reading and prayer is centered around the fears we might have around asking Jesus certain questions. While Jesus spoke a lot about the fact that he was going to die and rise again, the disciples were afraid to ask him what he meant by “being raised from the dead.”
What area in your life can you ask Jesus to bring back to life today?
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If you're having a hard day, may this psalm encourage you today. "Why are you sad, O my soul? Why have you become troubled within me? Hope in God, for I will praise Him again for His help of being near me." This reading is from the NLV translation.
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The past four days, we’ve been hanging out in the book of Ruth. Today, we’ll see how God’s hesed, his loving-kindness, not only transforms the life of Naomi, but will have future repercussions, even in your life and mine.
My invitation to you today is to listen for how God worked to restore Naomi not only through one person, Ruth, but also through Boaz.
Who might be a Naomi in your life? And a Ruth, or a Boaz?
Consider reaching out to those individuals today with a quick note, thanking them for their strategic partnership in God’s work in and through you.
Also, if you found it helpful to do a run-through of an entire book like this, please let me know in the comments below, or reach out to me via Instagram or Facebook.
Thanks for walking this path with me. I’ll be traveling over the next few months, and while I have some of the recordings lined up, you can be certain that we’ll have new background sounds. I look forward to taking you around the world with me!
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Who says the stories in the Bible are boring? In today’s reading, we find Naomi working on a strategy to convince Ruth to propose to Boaz. You might remember from the reading two days ago that because of the loss of her husband and sons, she had become no-one in the eyes of her culture.
In the process of grief, Naomi discovers God’s loving-kindness, his hesed. Discovering God’s hesed, author Carolyn Custis James points out in Finding God in the Margins, frees Naomi "from being self-absorbed in grief to focus now on Ruth.” This quest is neither with the hope of having a grandson nor to help bachelor Boaz finally find a wife. Instead, it was a cry for mercy.
There are some Jewish laws that come to play in today’s chapter. The first is the kinsman-redeemer law which requires the nearest relative to buy a man’s land should he be forced to sell. And the second is the levirate law, which requires that when a man dies without an heir, his brother has to marry the widow.
Odd laws, and like I said yesterday, I’m thankful I didn’t live at the time of Ruth and Naomi. And typically, these laws are unrelated. One dealt with property, the other with progeny. By proposing to Boaz, Ruth combines and thus expands these laws.
What would the result be? Listen first, then come back tomorrow to discover how Boaz responds to Ruth’s advance.
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Yesterday, we started a journey along the dusty road between Moab (modern-day Jordan) and Israel where three women were walking back to the land of Elimelech, the late husband of the oldest of the three women. Perhaps you were able to envision yourself on the road with them, listening in as Naomi urged her daughters-in-law to Moab to see if they could start over, if they could find husbands again and thus gain respect in the eyes of their people.
We learned that finding a husband and then bearing sons for that husband was considered the main role women had. (I, for one, am thankful I was born in the 20th century, not in 1200 BCE, the time when this story plays out. How about you?)
But one of Naomi’s widowed daughters-in-law, a young woman named Ruth, decided to stay with Naomi, declaring,
Wherever you go, I will go. Wherever you sleep, I will sleep. Your people will be my people. Your God will be my God. Where you die, I will die, and that is where I will be buried.
Famous words, those are, as they should be, for women at that time really had no right to make a declaration such as that. As subjects in a patriarchal culture, they weren’t allowed to make big decisions for themselves. But Ruth did, as Naomi had done. These weren’t timid women.
In today’s chapter, you’ll also discover that Ruth was not afraid to work hard, either. In the process, she catches the eye of the landowner whose land she goes to pick up barley that had been dropped. If you grew up going to Sunday school, you’d know how this story ends. But if you didn’t, keep listening. There’s a reason this story is in the Bible, and it’s not just because the Moabite widow was beautiful or a hard worker…
As with yesterday’s reading, I encourage you to consider how God uses suffering and tragedy in both Naomi’s life and that of Ruth to bring them to an understanding of God’s loving-kindness. It may be time for you and me to take another look at hardship in our lives that we’re begging God to take away and instead invite him to help us grow through the events in our lives.
Even better, pause and ponder what you are learning about God’s character that you could not have learned under any other circumstances.
For Ruth, the lesson seems to be that the God of her mother-in-law is a God who sees her, comforts her, and protects her. There’s more for her to learn, though. We’ll discover that in tomorrow’s reading.
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When it comes to the book of Ruth, the way the story has been told for years was that there was one hero in this story: Boaz, the family member who saves Ruth and her sad mother-in-law.
But then I read Carolyn Custis James’ The Gospel of Ruthand later, Finding God in the Margins,and I started seeing this short book in the Bible through fresh eyes.
James points out that Naomi is a “female Job.” In the patriarchal culture in which she lives, Naomi’s role is to provide sons for her husband. But then Elimelech dies, as do her sons. Being past her childbearing years, she has no future, no identity. So Naomi decides to return to her homeland as a famine refugee. En route, she emancipates her daughters-in-law, giving them permission to return home and hopefully find new husbands in their own culture.
For these women—and many women around the world still—their futures hinge on marriage and bearing sons.
But as we know and will hear in today’s reading, Ruth decides to stay with Naomi. This is no small feat. In their patriarchal culture, young women didn’t get to make decisions. But she finds her voice and uses it. And that changes the trajectory of her life.
As you listen, put yourself in Naomi’s shoes. Imagine all she goes through—the famine that has her and her husband move to a foreign land, the loss of the men in her life, the loss of identity, and the long walk back to Bethlehem, where the famine from years past is finally over, but her soul is famished. Think of what it would be like to be Ruth, an undocumented immigrant heading to a land she has never known.
Also, consider how God uses suffering and tragedy in both Naomi’s life and that of Ruth to bring them to an understanding of God’s loving-kindness. But in today’s chapter, they’re not there yet. Today, Naomi does not yet see hope, and Ruth is but on the cusp of finding her identity outside of her own culture.
If you’re fresh out of hope today, hang in there for the next few days and see if you can learn something from this Hebrew widow and her Arab daughter-in-law.
In the end, I hope you’ll see that God is the only hero in the story but that we can learn from the alliance between Naomi, Ruth, and later, Boaz.
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Hosea is one of several prophets in the Old Testament who warned God’s people of exile. We might think that messages about Israel’s exile don’t pertain to us thousands of years later. In the literal sense, they might not.
But you and I still face exile as a human condition in that we return to situations from which we may want to—or need to—escape.
Hosea 11 is a message of hope for the future, a clear reminder of where God has brought us from and his care for us.
May you be encouraged today by this reading.
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For today’s reading, I’d like to invite you to travel with me to a hillside in Galilee, where a large crowd is gathering. People have been gathering from near and far to catch a glimpse of Jesus, the man who’s been the talk of the region because of the miracles he’s been performing.
Find a patch on the grass or on a smooth rock where you can make yourself comfortable. Imagine the sun beating down on you. Feel the breeze that brings respite. Sense the roughness of your robe and your leather sandals. Your feet may be tired from the long journey.
But more than your feet aching, your heart may be heavy, so you’re listening carefully to every word Jesus says…
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If Jesus asks, "What do you want me to do for you?", what will your answer be? Today's reading is from the CSB version.
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Today’s focus is a reading of Romans 12:1-2 from The Message. “Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering.”
Or as author Floyd McClung once told me, “Go do [all] that with God.”
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Psalm 121 is one of my favorite psalms for the truths that it holds. Today’s reading is from the Passion Translation. May it provide you with courage for whatever lies before you.
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"Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His loving-kindness lasts forever." Today's reading is from the NLV translation.
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"Lord, bend down to listen to my prayer. I am in deep trouble. I’m broken and humbled, and I desperately need your help. Guard my life, for I’m your faithful friend, your loyal servant for life. I turn to you in faith, my God, my hero; come and rescue me!" Today's reading is from the Passion Translation.
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Join me in praying psalm 23 in English and in Afrikaans.
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How simple life would be if good things happened to good people and bad things to bad? But that's not how life works. You or I could eat well, run marathons and never smoke, and you can still end up with a rare cancer.
Truth is, life is hard. Stuff happens. Which is why Jesus taught about the upside-down kingdom, where “You’re blessed when you’re content with just who you are—no more, no less. That’s the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can’t be bought."
This psalm responds to the life-long question of why the wicked prosper and the good suffer. This situation is only temporary, King David concludes.
Today, may you find strength and shelter in God, no matter what you're facing.
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"Give all your cares to the Lord and He will give you strength. He will never let those who are right with Him be shaken." Today's reading is from the NLV translation.
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"As the deer pants for the water, so my soul longs for you." This is simply a reading of Psalm 42. Background noises provided by the birds of Belize, right outside my former home office.
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"Who do I have in heaven but you? And I desire nothing on earth but you. My flesh and my heart will fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever."
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