Ruth’s Take on Valentine’s Day

Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day and ironically, or perhaps poignantly, it will be the last holiday I spend as a married woman.

This morning I spent a good 20 minutes trying to remember the last two Valentine’s Days I had, but alas, I could not remember one thing. I suppose a little more digging and I could’ve found something, but then I figured sometimes the mind knows what to hang onto and what to let go, and perhaps I shouldn’t fight the system God saw fit to give me.

Besides, tomorrow is a bright, new day and I think I will just let it be memorable all on its own. Flowers and candies and cards are all wonderful, but they don’t define a day or a life or person or even a moment very well. If the God of the Universe sees fit to cause the sun to rise and puts breath in my lungs, then it by definition it will be the day He has made and my role is to rejoice and be glad it in it. And trust me, those two things are on my to-do list for tomorrow.

I decided a little while ago to read straight through my Bible in as large of chunks as I could fit into the day. I have read through the Bible before, but in just a few chapers at a time. Longing for the broader view, I decided that just wouldn’t work this time…

Again ironically (or poignantly) this morning I started the morning in the book of Ruth, which is a love story of iconic proportions. I never really thought much of the this particular book of the Bible until a month or so ago. I knew, naturally, the verse it is most famous for “..where you go, I will go, where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people will be my people and your God will be my God…” I knew the general storyline, but like I said, I never thought much of it.

Then I was kneeling at the alter, being quiet before the Lord, one day this summer when no one else was in the sanctuary. (Whenever we do that, Cohen always looks around and says, “Mommy, e’erybody not here”. Yes, son, that’s the point *grin*) And while Cohen was running around on the stage and I was trying to hear from God, He said nothing, but He did give me a picture.

And the picture was of Ruth, uncovering and lying down at the feet of Boaz.

My first (highly spiritual thought) was “well that’s weird”. And my second thought was “if this has to do with any relationship stuff, I don’t want to think about it.”

And I didn’t.

So then sometime around Christmas, when the Lord had brought me to a softer place (or made me softer? probably both), that picture came back to mind.

I’d like to think that it was like God and I were sitting at a conference table, on opposite sites across from one another. He slid that picture across the table and offered it to me and I took one look and said, “not ready. I have no place to put that right now” and slid it back. So he gave me some other things I did have context for and then he tried me again. This time when He slid it across the table, I felt a little affecion for the gift but had no idea what to do with it.

So I did what I do. I read and re-read Ruth like it was my job for about a week. The more I read, the more confused I got. What was I supposed to take from this? That an older man was going to provide for me? That I shouldn’t consider younger men? No…too literal. That I should be forward? Ruth seems awful forward to me, I thought..

And the more I thought the more I didn’t want to think about it; and the more I started to wonder if I really had somewhere to put this information where it wasn’t going to start to drive me crazy. Perhaps I had accepted this gift before I was really ready for it.

Perhaps, but now it was unwrapped and it was driving me crazy. So I did what I do. I made an appointment to speak with Pastor.

He lent me a tissue (though I always choke back my tears… I think he’s waiting for the day when I don’t and the tissue has something to catch) and I recounted the whole thing to him and then said, “Please explain Ruth to me. I need to get an understanding.”

So he opened up his Bible and I opened mine and an understanding was just what I got.

I had heard the term “kinsman redeemer” before and I knew the general idea… if a woman was left without a son to carry on the family name, the closest male relative was to take the woman as his wife and give her a son to carry the family name and give provision for her. Times were different then and women needed a son to be cared for in the absence of their husband.

Pastor went on to expand my thinking about it… the kinsman redeemer was also called a “jo-El” and the ultimate purpose was to redeem or restore the family.

…cue choking back tears…

Boaz noticed Ruth because of her character. His servants told him she had come to glean in the field and her work ethic had been something to recount. Not to mention the story of her faithfulness and loyalty to her mother-in-law was well known in the community.

When Naomi, the mother-in-law, told Ruth to go to threshing floor and uncover his feet and lay down, I was thinking to myself, “hmm…seems not only forward but the perfect scenario for those Worst Case Scenario books… SO much could go wrong!”

But nothing goes wrong. Boaz wakes, sees her there, gives her praise, and promises to deal with her state as a widow first thing in the morning.

And then you know, as the story goes, Boaz isn’t the closest relative, but that relative backs out, so Boaz redeems Ruth, marries and has children with her. And they lived happily ever after.

Its a good love story.

But that whole uncovering of the feet was what the Lord had given to me and that was the part of the story I was most unsure about, especially if the Lord was telling me to emulate it or giving me a peek into my future.

Just unsure.

Pastor helped to clarify that as well. When Ruth uncovered his feet and spread his ‘skirt’ or covering over her, she was essentially asking for his protection. She even says to him (Amplified version),
“I am Ruth, your maidservant. Spread your wing [of protection] over your maidservant, for you are a next of kin.”

Boaz is a prototype; a fore runner of Christ; and in fact, he is the great grandfather of King David out of whose line Jesus was born. Impressive, eh?

So when Ruth asks for Boaz to spread his covering over her as a sign of his willingness to protect and provide for her, there is a direct connection for those of us who believe. In the same way we ask the Lord to hide us in the shadow of His mighty wing and to protect and preserve our lives and to give us an inheritance. And not just us, but our families too.

I slid the package back across the table in the summer, thinking the Lord wanted to give me hope about human love, and I wasn’t ready for all that. But after leaving that conversation with Pastor, I realized I could have accepted the package way back in the summer. The Lord was speaking to me about love… His Love. He was giving me a peek into the future that He has for me and for my son… a future full of the pursuit of God (that He won’t drag His feet any more than Boaz did by rising the very next morning to work it all out), the provision of God (Boaz made sure his servans left extra wheat and barley for Ruth to glean so she would have more than she needed) and an inheritance.

Inheritance.

That’s the kicker. Inheritance. Having what you need in the here and now is important, but knowing that the Lord will restore your family and give you a claim to an inheritance…now that’s really something to write home about (or write a blog about, as the case may be *grin*)

Ruth was a Moabitess living in a land and a part of a people that were not the Lord’s. She had married a man whose family came to her land because they were poor and hungry so chances are she wasn’t someone of impressive standing. She was widowed at a young age and left without a son, which was her ticket to having anything.

But she was faithful, loyal, and true. She did the right thing when it must have seemed strange to those around her… can you imagine what her Moabite family and friends must have thought? Even the woman she was being faithful to questioned her logic (“what will I have another son that you could wait to marry?” she essentially asks)! It was a strange enough move that all of the Israelites had heard what she had done.. she was the talk around the community well. But still she did what she knew was right. She gathered food for her mother-in-law and herself, following along in the fields to get what the others had left behind. When she was given instrcutions, she followed them. She was a woman of remarkable character.

Low standing, but remarkable character…

So Ruth went from that kind of a situation to being the beloved wife of a well known and well respected pillar of the community. She went from barren and childless to the grandmother of the great and famous King David, out of whose geneology would come the The Redeemer.

It makes me think of some of the words of the prophet Joel,
“And I will RESTORE or REPLACE for you the years that the creeping locusts the stripping locusts, and the gnawing locusts…”

I am not sure I totally get the significance of the three types of locusts, but I can see the picture of destruction, can’t you? The locusts come and swarm, strip the crops and eat them up, leaving little left in their path. Early on the writings of the Old Testament, “locusts” was a term given to those who invaded the Israelites, those who came in and destroyed the crops; who took their ability to provide. So the picture Joel paints here, every Israelite understood.

Joel, speaking inspired by the Lord, tells the Israelites that He will restore back to them everything that they thought was lost in the seasons that felt like utter destruction.

Isn’t the Lord just like that? He never just replaces what you had for what you had…no, His restoration looks a lot like favor… a lot like an unfair trade… He takes the little you had and lost and gives you much. I think that’s why Paul was so fond of the phrase “if____ how MUCH MORE will God______”

MUCH MORE… that’s the Lord’s strategy; that’s His M.O.

Ruth never had to face a Valentine’s Day as a widow since she was born before Hallmark started creating days for us to spend money, but I am sure she faced seasons of loneliness. Being a poor widow with a bitter mother-in-law could not have been a cake walk, but she walked it with courage and strength and admirable character. And I think if she had something to say to those of us who will celebrate the Lord’s day tomorrow without cards and candy and roses, I think she would say this…

MUCH MORE. What the locusts have stolen, the Lord will replace with MUCH MORE than what you’ve already known. He will provide for you now, but MUCH MORE than that He will give you a hope and a future.

Now, that will help you get up in the morning with His praise in your mouth, won’t it?

Blessings my friends. Whether or not you are going to celebrate Valentines Day tomorrow, don’t forget to celebrate Jesus.