I have been puzzling over Ruth and Naomi all day. This story gets turned into so many things but there seems to be a good deal of just common decency going on here - Ruth is worried about Naomi and decides that she will stay with her despite the fact that this may mean that she, herself, will be unable to marry again.
The expectation that Naomi would have had was that her care would pass from her husband to her sons - children look after parents. By looking after Naomi Ruth might not have children to look after her long after Naomi was dead - she would then rely on the same charity which she was now exhibiting.
This was a risky kind of love to share with her mother-in-law. There was no guarantee of payback, no guarantee of Boaz, no guarantee that she would not end up begging on the roadside. Naomi knows this and tries to send her back to a careful life.
But Ruth is not up for a careful life. Are we? Are we looking for investments which are safe and easy or are we taking risks with our love and life? Are we going off to find the stability of the well trodden path or do we dare to accompany the broken hearted on a journey which takes us out of the ordinary, which demands our trust and the suspension of our own needs and fears?
He sent me to bring the good news to the poor
Tell prisoners that they are prisoners no more
Tell blind people that they can see
And set the down trodden free........
Another school assembly hymn......or to walk with a woman whose world had been taken from her, to be her family at the risk of being alone and to find in that journey..........well don't want to spoil the story if you don't know the end!!
No comments:
Post a Comment