Thank You Ruth

The women said to Naomi: "Praise be to the LORD, who this day has not left you without a kinsman-redeemer. May he become famous throughout Israel! He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, has given him birth."

Then Naomi took the child, laid him in her lap and cared for him. The women living there said, "Naomi has a son." And they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David. - Ruth 4: 14-17

Hey Naomi,

You’re a whole lot nicer than I am. I can’t imagine how tough it must have been to lose your husband at that time. How would you eat? Where would you live? Should you go back home to your family in Moab? I think that’s what I would have done. That makes the most sense.

But instead you saw that Naomi needed help and you stayed with her. You left all that you knew and chose to believe that God would take care of you and your mother in law.

It must have been pretty scary to go into those fields with all of the strange men to harvest the grain. We have seen from the other stories that this represented risking your modesty and your life. Any one of them might have snatched you up and done with you what he desired.

But since you believed, God looked out for you. And as a result of this, David was born.

I love how there is this constant theme in the Bible of the greatest coming from the least. Joseph rose from slavery to lead Egypt. Moses was an orphan who became a liberator of the faith. Gideon was a coward who became a champion of Israel. And you, through faith, became the great grandmother of David… preserving the family line of Jesus.

It’s hard to imagine in my day and time how strong you were. To many of us what you did seems to be stuck in a place in time that doesn’t jive with what a strong woman is today.

But you took a leap of faith, a leap so long that you couldn’t have possibly seen where you would land.

But land you did, safely and securely.

Thanks for having faith where I would have doubted, and persevering where I would have given up.

Peace.

Today’s Reading: Ruth 1-4; Luke 8:1-25