Ruth 1:15-17 – 15:
So she said, “See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.” But Ruth said, “Do not press me to leave you or to turn back from following you! Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die, I will die— there will I be buried. May the LORD do thus and so to me, and more as well, if even death parts me from you!”
Meditation
Ruth is the second of the five scrolls and a particular favorite of mine. Of course, it is a beautiful love story. But it is also a book about living faithfully by Torah and caring for the widow and the stranger. The hinge of the book is Ruth’s declaration of familial love for her mother-in-law, that Naomi’s God will be henceforth be Ruth’s God as well. And God returns that faithfulness, with sustenance, with a good marriage and by making the Moabite widow a mother in the line of the Chosen One. Agape or familial love is the gift that allows us to live together as God’s people. Thanks be to God.
Let us pray …
God who is parent to our family of humankind: Thank you for those who have gone before who have been our light of your love. Thank you for the people we rely on when we need help along the way. Thank you for those Samaritans who are willing to help strangers. Make us mindful of the needs of others and help us to give as we have been so richly given. Thank you for your good gifts of a web of relationships, both real and virtual. Amen.
