Happy Monday, friends!
Since March is International Women’s Month, we’re focusing on women in the Bible. Last week, you voted, so I’m excited about sharing three more stories this month. This week’s pick: Ruth! Her life inspires us to trust God and live courageously when the unexpected changes the course of our lives.
Did you know that in Jewish tradition, the book of Ruth is read at the celebration called Shavuot, or the Festival of Weeks? Her eponymous book opens with disobedience and tragedy but builds to a beautiful redemption story with an eternal twist.
Early in the first chapter, we meet Ruth. Her father-in-law had already died when she was introduced. In the next verse, Ruth’s husband and brother-in-law die as well, and there’s no mention of children. We’re not given insight into Ruth’s emotions, but surely, this wouldn’t have been the life she’d planned or dreamed of for herself. All we know is that she decides to stick with Naomi, who’d decided to go back home to Judah.
Remember Ruth’s well-known declaration?
“Don’t ask me to leave you and turn back. Wherever you go, I will go; wherever you live, I will live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. Wherever you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord punish me severely if I allow anything but death to separate us!” -Ruth 1:16-17 NLT
REMEMBER THIS: Ruth didn’t abandon God even though she may have felt abandoned because of her circumstances.
So, off the ladies go back to Naomi’s hometown of Bethlehem. Can you imagine what it must have been like for Ruth to show up with Naomi? She wasn’t just a foreigner, but she was a Moabite. The Israelites didn’t like the Moabites because they were pagans and had gotten Israel into a lot of trouble (Numbers 25). If I were Ruth, I’d feel self-conscious, maybe even out of place.
We’re not told what Ruth was thinking, only her actions:
One day, Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “Let me go out into the harvest fields to pick up the stalks of grain left behind by anyone who is kind enough to let me do it.”
Naomi replied, “All right, my daughter, go ahead.” So Ruth went out to gather grain behind the harvesters. And as it happened, she found herself working in a field that belonged to Boaz, the relative of her father-in-law, Elimelech. -Ruth 2:2-3 NLT
She’d lost her husband and moved to a new country where the people were more likely to be hostile than kind. Ruth knew they’d need food. She figured out what she could do and went to do it.
REMEMBER THIS: Ruth focused on what she could do, not what she couldn’t control.
Years ago, I featured Ruth’s story in my I’m Waiting, God Bible study, which explores living with unanswered prayers. I wrote I’m Waiting, God study in early 2019, about six months after I had to move my three kids and me out of our home. My then-spouse had been struggling with alcohol addiction for almost a decade. After months of praying and seeking wise counsel from friends and my church leadership, I needed to remove my children from our home. We needed a safe space, but losing our home left my chest tight with grief and sadness.
I couldn’t change or control our situations, but I did make a list of what I could do. I spent time with God each day and went to counseling. I worked out each day and attended Al-Anon each week. I met with my accountability partner, and I journaled my grief. As I engaged in healing choices, God poured His unexplainable peace, love, and healing into me.
REMEMBER THIS: You always have healthy and healing choices. You may not always like them, but only you can choose them. No one can do the work for you.
If you know what comes next in Ruth’s story, you know that she works in a field owned by a man named Boaz, who happens to be a distant family member of Naomi. He sees how hard she is working and speaks to her.
Boaz went over and said to Ruth, “Listen, my daughter. Stay right here with us when you gather grain; don’t go to any other fields. Stay right behind the young women working in my field. -Ruth 2:8 NLT
During Ruth’s unexpected season, she didn’t have control; in fact, she was at the mercy of Naomi, the other Israelites in town, and Boaz because it was his field. Yet, she showed up in faith, and God moved behind the scenes to take care of her and Naomi. Ruth worked hard, but she wasn’t trying to do everything. She took simple, practical steps of faith, and God showed up to take care of her.
REMEMBER THIS: Living by faith in an unexpected season sets you up for God’s unexpected provision.
If you know the rest of Ruth’s story, Naomi coached Ruth on how to let Boaz know that she was available for marriage. The Moabite woman who’d endured heartache but trusted God found a second chance and became a part of Jesus’ family tree.
At some point, all of us face unexpected seasons that we’d never choose on our own. But, praise God that nothing ever catches Him by surprise!
I’m wrapping up today’s devotion with a prayer for anyone dealing with an unexpected or unwanted season of heartache, loss, confusion, or broken dreams. You aren’t forgotten, dear friend. God sees you and loves you. I do, too.
