In the next two weeks I turn to the Old Testament where examples of people asking for God’s help abound.
In this imaging of Ruth 1, I focus on Ruth’s boldness. Naomi thought having sons would bring her happiness. See what God had in mind instead.
By my count, my life didn’t really begin until I joined Naomi’s household.
I was so young when my family married me to Naomi’s son Mahlon. A woman normally has no say in these matters and I had barely talked with Mahlon before we wed. But Naomi welcomed me so joyfully and put me at ease from the start. Though they were foreigners, they never seemed foreign to me. Rather I felt more at home with them than in my own household where I was just another girl for my father to marry off.
Naomi was a widow when Mahlon and I married, but despite her loss, she kept the spirit of her husband Elimelech alive among us. I loved to hear her stories of her homeland and the kin she left behind. The Israelites seemed strange to us because they worshiped only a single god and brought no shrines or idols with them as they sojourned among us. Naomi explained that God was invisible and with her wherever she went; she didn’t need any token piece of wood to remind her about who lived in her heart.
Truly, Mahlon was a kind husband – gentle and patient with me, despite my young years. With his brother Kilion and his wife Orpah we made a happy family full of promise for future joy. Naomi often said she could never have recovered from losing Elimelech without us daughters! But then as month after month passed and neither Orpah nor I became pregnant Naomi’s spirit ebbed. Then the fever came taking both our husbands. Naomi grew increasingly desolate and Orpah and I feared for her.
One morning, however, Naomi got up early and began to pack. “I’m going back to Israel,” she announced with finality. To Orpah and me she pleaded, “Go back home and live with your mothers. And may God treat you as graciously as you treated Mahlon and Kilion. May God give each of you a new home and a new husband.” Orpah and I insisted on accompanying her and the three of us wept for a long time.
At last, Naomi persuaded Orpah to leave and we bid her goodbye with many more tears. I’m sure Naomi expected me to follow, but I could not bear the thought of losing her. She was more mother – more friend to me – than I had ever known. I clung to her and begged:
“Don’t force me to leave you; don’t make me go home. Where you go, I go; and where you live, I’ll live. Your people are my people, your God is my god; where you die, I’ll die, and that’s where I’ll be buried, so help me God—not even death itself is going to come between us!”
Once Naomi accepted my stubbornness, we set out together for Bethlehem. When we made it to her home and old friends welcomed her back, she bewailed her sad fate to them, saying, “Don’t call me Naomi – call me Bitter! I left here full of life, and God has brought me back with nothing but the clothes on my back.”
Despite her sour speech, I knew Naomi was glad of my company. I also knew there was something waiting for both of us here in the land of her God. Her God had already kept us – two lone women – safe on our journey. Surely he had plans for us yet.
Read the rest of Ruth’s story in Ruth 2-4.
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