Ruth 1:16,17-“But Ruth said [to Naomi], “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. 1 Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.”
Ruth 2:2- “And Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “Let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain after him in whose sight I shall find favor.” And she said to her, “Go, my daughter.”
Ruth 3:9- “He [Boaz] said, “Who are you?” And she answered, “I am Ruth, your servant. Spread your wings R5 over your servant, for you are a redeemer.”
Ruth 4:13,14 & 17 -” So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife. And he went in to her, and the Lord gave her conception, and she bore a son. Then the women said to Naomi, “Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you this day without a redeemer, and may his name be renowned in Israel! … And the women of the neighborhood gave him a name, saying, “A son has been born to Naomi.” They named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.

Ruth

Ruth is one of my favorite Bible stories. I love the story of this young Moabitess woman. Her mother-in-law, Naomi, had come into the land of Moab when Judah was in a famine time. God had commanded the Israelites to stay, but this particular couple left from God’s protection. They traveled to a foreign land and lived there. Their sons married local women, also a no-no. When Naomi’s husband and both of her sons died, she turned bitter. One daughter in law decided to stay with her family. However, Ruth told Naomi that she would go with her back to her homeland. Though Ruth wasn’t born as an Israelite, she understood their God and longed to serve him. She showed true love by honoring her mother-in-law and vowing to stay with her. They traveled back to Bethlehem, alone and without a husband to provide for either of them.

They needed desperately to eat. Ruth volunteered to glean in the fields (basically pick up the left over grain the harvesters had dropped) and gather it for them to eat. Boaz, Naomi’s cousin, saw her and felt affection toward her. He purposefully had his people drop extra grain. He had heard of her kindness for her Naomi and wanted to repay her by sharing his crop with her. When Naomi realized that she had been in Boaz’s field, she knew that she would elicit his help. Naomi sent Ruth to ask Boaz to be her kinsmen-redeemer ( a tradition where when a young child-bearing woman was widowed, then a family member would marry her and produce offspring to carry on the deceased man’s name.) Boaz accepted her and redeemed her. Thus, Boaz and Ruth married and together they bore a son. His was name was Obed, and he was the father of Jesse, who was the father of King David. Hence, Ruth bore a son whose linage would eventually lead to Jesus Christ.

Naomi had been raised a Jew. She knew all the traditions and customs. Yet she and her husband disobeyed the Lord and left and then allowed their sons to marry outside of their religion. And when trouble came upon her, she was bitter. Yet Ruth had never heard of this God, and was able to redeem her family through her love, servant hood, and faithfulness to Noami and Noami’s God. It was because of her character that Boaz was willing to redeem her. How I respect Ruth and how true she was to God. And he blessed her by her linage, even though she wasn’t born a Jew.

The colors in “Ruth” are designed to represent parts of Ruth’s life. The red is her pure heart, that loved her God and her mother-in-law, Naomi. The pink stands for her gracious character. She was a beautiful woman who was graceful in spirit. And the brown and green are for the land that she worked in, where she met her husband Boaz. She was blessed in her life, and I pray that “Ruth” blesses you as well.