I have been blogging for over 13 years. Throughout that time, I have published hundreds, if not thousands, of pieces and articles. Some you may have seen before; some you may not have.
They say sharing is caring, and in Vintage Discovery, I am using this space to share pre-published treasures that are old but may be new to you. I hope you find them just as insightful, encouraging, and a blessing as when they were first published.
Come with me today as we revisit What Would It Have Been Like? – “To Be Ruth of the Bible,” as we learn the importance of our decisions.
Blessings.
“What now?” clawed at her throat, but the words refused to be uttered from her mouth. Disbelief that her husband was dead locked those words in her troubled mind. Numbness at the reality of it all would have made her swoon if it were not for the look on her mother-in-law’s face.
“This can’t be happening… Not now…” Ruth thought, grasping her new reality while trying with all her might to keep her composure despite the sadness gripping her own heart. “Naomi needs me to be strong,” she silently willed herself, swallowing her sorrow. “First, Elimelech, and now this. How much more can we… No, how much more can she bear?”
After some time…
“Daughters,” Naomi spoke up, “it is time,” feeling greatly resolved at the decision that had to be made.
“What?” both Ruth and Orpah spoke in unison.
“It is time for me to return home. Oh, girls, we moved to Moab these past years because famine ravished our homeland. But Moab is not my home.” Looking at their pleading eyes, Naomi continued, “It has recently come to my attention that the conditions we fled from are now over. God has blessed my people once again with His favor. There is now bread in Bethlehem.”
Sighing heavily, she said, “I have no reason to stay here. It is time for me to go back.”
“But what of your life here?” asked one of the women.
“I no longer have a life here, dear,” Naomi cried as heartbreaking sobs broke through her words. “In this land, I have had to say goodbye to the people I treasure most in this world. This land has taken my heart; it has taken my family. I have watched my husband die, and now I am forced to let go of my sons. What is there left for me here?”
“Naomi, you have us,” Ruth spoke with pleading confidence.
“No, my daughter. It is best if you two return to your homes, as I must return to mine. I am old. I have nothing left to offer you.”
“Mother,” that word caught in Ruth’s throat as she lovingly and gently tried to persuade her mother-in-law. “We can do this together. You don’t have to return to Bethlehem, and we don’t have to leave your side. Somehow, someway we can make this work.”
Sighing once again, this time with the prayerful hope for understanding, Naomi turned to the face that bore the sadness of her own: “Child, I love you both, and I would that for all the world to have things as they once were. But it is not so. Things will never be the same for me again. Not here anyway.”
Holding the hand of this loving heart, she continued, unyielding in her resolve, “Now, I must return to my own people where I belong to seek solace for this old, broken heart.”
“Then, permit us to go with you,” Ruth rushed to answer, Orpah nodding in agreement.
“Mahlon and Chilion were my only sons. I have no more. I am now too old to remarry. It is as I have told you, I have nothing left to offer. It would be selfish of me to ask you to give up the possibility of a better future in your parents’ homes to follow me. Go, return now to your own people. Perhaps God will be gracious to you, and you can remarry there and start over again someday.”
“You don’t mean that, do you?” Ruth’s broken heart questioned as she looked into the eyes of the woman whom she had come to love. Sobbing at her side, Orpah could not speak. Their world had indeed been shaken, but she believed Naomi was right.
A decision must be made that day. Both Ruth and Orpah would choose the path of life they would follow.
What would it have been like to stand there that day and to make that decision? Those times were not favorable toward women who were all alone. Should they stay or should they go?
Walking into the unknown toward Bethlehem with Naomi, Ruth chose to go. Orpah chose to return home to her people. There she hoped to find some normalcy and stability. Ruth, as the Bible says, clung to Naomi and refused to be parted from this woman who has meant so much to her.
That day, Ruth walked away from everything familiar with no promise of better. Ruth turned her back on her own family to love and support this woman who is not even of her own flesh and blood. Ruth chose a path most would not want to travel. Hers was a path of self-sacrifice. Lest one take her story too lightly, they should consider her life in comparison with ours today.
Before I go anywhere, I plan in great detail to be sure I lack nothing when I arrive. Ruth had no such pleasure. Not only was she not guaranteed any provisions for life, but would they even accept her in Bethlehem? Surely by now, they knew that Naomi’s sons married Moabite women. How would she be treated? People would rejoice at Naomi’s return, but what about her? In that place, are there those who would take advantage of her? If any of those questions ever arose, they were not spoken for fear of thwarting the opportunity to follow Naomi. Her only concern was for that very woman, not herself.
In every part of her journey, Ruth stepped into the unknown. In her travels with Naomi, her arrival in Bethlehem, her work gleaning the fields to support Naomi, and her eventual marriage to Boaz. Everything was new to her, and everything was strange. But in everything she did, she did with love and care in mind.
What would it have been like to give up so much; to show so much love in making such a decision? If we knew all the particulars of a woman in her situation during those days, we would see that hers was a decision of pure love.
She knew everything she was leaving behind. She didn’t know anything about where she was headed. But declaring God as her own, her mind was made up, and her heart followed. Onward she walked the journey where life would lead her because of the decision she made that day.
In the end, God greatly blessed her life and the sacrifices she made on behalf of another. So much so that she ended up giving birth to Obed, who is the grandfather of King David, the lineage of our Lord Jesus Christ.
It started with a decision. Not knowing what we were stepping into, would we have been able to make that decision? What would it have been like to be Ruth of the Bible?
Ruth teaches us our decisions matter!
*Creative license taken to explain the story of Ruth. I have tried to keep the integrity of the Scripture’s explanation of her story while filling in the blank of how their conversations may have transpired. For the full story, please compare with the Book of Ruth in the Bible.
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