As we come closer to Thanksgiving, visions of food and relatives come to mind. Then there is football and hunting if you are in Texas. Huddled around a TV or Table, they are there. Family. Connection. What is mine is yours, and yours mine. When everything else fails, there is family. They are the ones that you can fall back on. They offer comfort, support and love. These are your family. They lean on you and you in them.

    Hear the Good News, even when we feel we have lost everything and maybe even everyone, there are still people that you can turn to. Ruth, after losing her husband and looking at a future that seemed to offer no hope, turned to her mother-in-law. Instead of focusing solely on her own misfortunes, Ruth realized that there was someone who equally shared in her losses. Naomi, Ruth Mother-in-law, had lost her husband and two sons. And Ruth, in a selfless act of love, tells Naomi that she will go with her.

There will be times in our life that we feel as though we have hit rock bottom and things can get no worse. We will have the opportunity to focus on what has happened, or we can focus on what we can do. Ruth, remembering the husband and the family that she has been surrounded by, decides to continue that relationship. As we face the challenges of life, we have family that will see us through it all. And who is our family? Our family are those people who huddle around and watch life with us, they are the ones who share those special festive time with us. They are the ones that are still there after the dust, the crowd and the mess is cleared. I guess the question that is left for us is where. Where is it that we find those friends and family. If you are looking, try your local church.