Moving is hard. Most of us will not have to flee our homes due to famine or war, but many of us have experienced the challenge that comes with moving to a new location. If you’ve ever had to box up all your belongings and move to a new house, apartment, dorm room, new city, or even new country, then you know what I’m talking about. There’s the physical work of packing up your clothes, furniture, books, and perhaps decor. And then there’s the emotional work of leaving a place that might hold memories.
I’ve moved probably a dozen times in my life. I still remember when I was 18 and made my first big solo move from my parents’ house in Chicago to my first dorm room in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It felt like a big deal to venture out on my own and discover life with roommates, who were not family members.
I’ve made some even farther moves like when I moved to Costa Rica for a semester in college or when my husband Ericlee and I first moved our family from California to Haiti to help direct a non-profit organization.
My hardest move was a short move across town after my husband Ericlee graduated to heaven. My daughters and I stayed in the house where he died for almost a year before I took the big step to buy a new house. Sorting, purging, and packing up all of our things from more than a decade of marriage was difficult. I cried a lot of tears as I left that home on Harrison Street full of so many memories – both good and hard.
The book of Ruth helps us explore themes like displacement and homelessness. Ruth also illuminates finding hope in a foreign land and finding peace in the unexpected, unwanted, and unplanned. Ruth is not a book only for women, but it’s a book that is important for women. God is for women, and particularly for widows and women who are vulnerable in our culture. Ruth is also part of history – His story – the story of the Son of God who was sent to earth to be the ultimate Guardian-Redeemer for us all. It’s about a foreigner, an immigrant, a widow, a daughter, who is invited to return home to Bethlehem, where God shows her unexpected lovingkindness, grace, mercy and abundant provision. Ruth reminds us that God has a heart and a plan of redemption – not just for the Israelites – but for all the nations and for all of us.
God showed me his abundant kindness on the gritty trail of my life. Through wild “just so happened” circumstances, God brought my own Guardian-Redeemer, and I’m living out the details of that next chapter today. Each of our stories is unique. Ruth was not written as a prescriptive book, but rather as a description of God’s redemptive love.
In Ruth 1:16, Ruth pledged her allegiance to Yahweh, the God of Israel, with these words: “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me” (NIV).
Ruth followed her mother-in-law Naomi around the Dead Sea through the land of Judah and into the town of Bethlehem. God reclaimed Ruth as His daughter through this move and the unfolding events in her life. In much the same way God parted the Red Sea for the Israelites so they could escape slavery in Egypt, God opened a passage to provision for Ruth. She stepped out in courage and overcame some of the prejudice that precedes her in Bethlehem.
Ruth arrived in Bethlehem as a foreigner (a Moabite), a famine refugee, and a young widow. These are some of the different angles or different categories others put her in. Each one comes with its own stigma and challenges. Animosity colors the history between the Moabites and the Jews. Ruth immigrated from Moab into a mostly homogenous Jewish town. People would have noticed she was different – from her dark skin tone to her dress to her accent.
When Boaz entered his field one day, he noticed Ruth. As mentioned before, she had some things that definitely would have made her stick out in this crowd. After Boaz hears from his foreman a bit about Ruth’s story, he goes to talk to her. He answers her courageous request to glean among the sheaves with an unexpected grace and generosity. He easily could have refused her, but he doesn’t. Ruth is not motivated by greed but by giving.
In Ruth 2:8-9, Boaz offered Ruth provision and protection in his field. We begin to see God’s plans for these women unfold. Even though we do not see God mentioned in the text, Ruth gets to experience how He is working on behalf of her and Naomi. The good news is God has a heart for the vulnerable. He identifies them, takes up their cause, and cares for them in creative ways. And we are called to do the same.
Let’s look expectantly for the ways God might be working in our lives to extend generosity to us as women today. Let’s lift our eyes and open our hearts to the people in our circles who God might want us to welcome, offer dignity and care for in meaningful ways.
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This article is an excerpt from Redeemer: God’s Lovingkindness in the Book of Ruth, a recently-released Bible study by Dorina Lazo Gilmore-Young and published by InterVarsity Press. In this six-week Bible study, Dorina Lazo Gilmore-Young invites us to view the book of Ruth as more than a Hallmark-tinted story, but rather as a story that proclaims God’s heart for the vulnerable, including widows, orphans, immigrants, refugees, and the poor. As Ruth’s story unfolds, we discover that God is the main character and that he is the true Redeemer, for Ruth and for us today. Dorina is a remarried widow, mama to three girls, author and speaker from a multicultural family. Connect with her at DorinaGilmore.com.