Crazy Love

Staying in the era of the Judges, I needed to read something happy.  For any of you who don't know, I struggled with gall bladder issues for awhile before I had it removed, and I have been continuing to struggle with some digestive issues enough that my surgeon wants me to have some further testing done.

Enough, Already!

 

So today, I've been nervous, because tomorrow I'm having a "minor" procedure ... and I wanted to read a story about something good coming from a tough situation, so read the book of Ruth.

The story of Ruth is one of my favorite love stories of all time, but I'd forgotten an element that reminded me of another of my favorite love stories ... Disney's Aladdin.

Ruth, like my friend Aladdin, is a "diamond in the rough."  She marries into an Jewish family, apparently accepting their traditions and religion, and sticks with her mother-in-law after all the family providers have died.  In that culture, women only had a few options:  wife/mother, prostitute, or beggar was the typical list.  Ruth, though LOVED her mother-in-law Naomi so much that she chose to stay with her, rather than go back home to possibly try again for a young, fertile, respectable husband from her own people.

Ruth's love is poured out to Naomi in her famous proclamation:  “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!”  (1:16-17)

Not only does Ruth give everything she has to stay with Naomi, she goes with her, knowing she is headed into poverty.  But she doesn't stop.  She gets to Judah, scrounges for food, and meets a man who is willing--actually happy--to redeem her, Naomi, and their ancestral land.  (There's that recurring theme of redemption again!)

The short of the story is Ruth bears a son who is the grandfather of the most famous (and probably best) king the people of Israel ever had ... David.  This foreigner who had nothing shows by her character her value; she is a gem of a woman.  And God blessed her.  

I read this story looking for my happy ending, and I found it.  But reading it reminded me of so much more.  God looks for the insignificant and the broken to use and restore, so He can do great things--things that can impact people and history far beyond the lifetime of the vessel he uses.

        

Lord, thank You for giving me a measure of peace through Ruth's story, that everything CAN turn out for good.  Thank you even more for choosing to work through Your creation--me--even though I really don't have much to offer on my own.  Let everything I accomplish of good be credited to Your work in my life, even by those who might not believe in You.  Let them "see [my] good works, and glorify [my] Father in Heaven."