“A friend loves at all times.”
— Proverbs 17:17
Ruth was a Moabite woman who married into an Israelite family. When her husband died, Ruth decided to follow her mother-in-law, Naomi, to Israel. Ruth wanted to care for Naomi, who had lost her husband and two sons. Naomi had no one else to care for her, and she wanted to return to her homeland.
Ruth loved Naomi with a love so deep that it led Ruth away from all she’d known and into a foreign land — into a land whose people didn’t get along with her people. She chose Naomi’s God over the false gods of the Moabites. She chose to serve Naomi even though Naomi had nothing to offer her.
Ruth and Naomi arrived in Bethlehem when the barley fields were golden and ready for harvest. According to the law and custom in Judah at that time, the poor could glean or gather for themselves whatever the harvesters missed. Though Ruth was a woman alone and a foreigner, she stepped out in faith to provide for her mother-in-law.
Boaz, the owner of the field, showed up while Ruth gleaned. He turned to the foreman of his harvesters and asked, “Whose young woman is that?”
The foreman said, “She is the Moabitess who came home with Naomi.”
Boaz then spoke to Ruth. “Don’t glean in any other field. Follow my servant girls. You will be safe here. And whenever you’re thirsty, get a drink from the water jars.”
He spoke with kindness and care. Ruth bowed. “Why are you being so kind to a foreigner?”
Boaz said, “I’ve been told about all you’ve done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband. How you left your father and mother and your homeland and came to live with a people you didn’t know. May the Lord, the God of Israel, bless you.”
That day Ruth carried an unusually large amount of barley home to Naomi.
“Where did you glean today?” Naomi asked. “Blessed be the man who noticed you.”
“On the fields of Boaz,” Ruth said.
“Boaz is my close relative. He’s one of our kinsman-redeemers.” Naomi realized then that the Lord hadn’t stopped caring for her. The exact field Ruth gleaned from that day belonged to her husband’s relative Boaz. And before long, Boaz agreed to marry Ruth.
God blessed Ruth for her faithfulness to God and to Naomi. Ruth discovered God’s loyal and loving nature. God gave Ruth a new people, a new home, a new husband, and a son to carry on Naomi’s family name.
Like Ruth, you can be a loving friend to your family members. Are you getting to know stepsisters or stepbrothers? Do you have a grandparent living in your home? Or maybe your situation involves a parent who doesn’t know Jesus. Can you think of ways to show them the loyal and loving nature of God?
More to Explore: Ruth 1:3 – 4:22
Girl Talk: What specific thing can you do — today — to be a loving sister, daughter, or friend?
God Talk: “Thank you, Lord, for my family. Help me to be a good sister, daughter, granddaughter, and friend to them. Amen.”
From Real Girls of the Bible by Mona Hodgson