Today’s Reflection
When my body dies and my soul goes home, I want my ashes to be placed upon the earth. They will not linger there long before finding their way into the life of other things. It is the way of some who have given me life, and although I’ll never know their names or stand at a stone commemorating their presence here, I will find them. They will be in the soil itself, the heartwood of the trees, the moss among the rocks, the berries, blown by the wind back into crevices. They would have known this as a sacred thing; not preservation, but creation.
—Ray Buckley, “Where We Bury Our Umbilical Cord,” in The Upper Room Disciplines 2024 (Upper Room Books, 2023)
Today’s Question
When have you, like Ruth, left the familiar behind to set out into the unknown? Where did you experience God’s presence and help in that situation? [adapted from questions by Ray Buckley in Disciplines 2024] Join the conversation.
Today’s Scripture
Ruth replied [to her mother-in-law], “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried.”
—Ruth 1:16-17 (NIV)
Prayer for the Week
Lord, we praise you. May your wisdom which we have embraced go with us wherever we go. Amen. [prayer by Ray Buckley in Disciplines 2024]
Submit your prayer to The Upper Room.
Something More
This week’s New Every Morning reflections feature excerpts from the current readings in The Upper Room Disciplines 2024. A year-long devotional, Disciplines offers an opportunity to look more deeply at scripture by providing daily meditations for each week written by a single author on a particular theme. Learn more at UpperRoomBooks.com/disciplines.
Lectionary Readings
- Ruth 1:1-18
- Psalm 146
- Hebrews 9:11-14
- Mark 12:28-34
Read the lectionary texts courtesy of Vanderbilt Divinity Library here.
Looking for lectionary-based resources? Learn more about The Upper Room Disciplines.
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