I AM: Enough Week Four - Day Five: A Narrative of Ruth

By Central Women

The news was devastating. The words no one ever wants to hear. And, as hard as this was on her, Ruth knew her anguish couldn’t compare to what her mother-in-law, Naomi was feeling.

Both of Naomi’s sons…gone.

Naomi’s husband had been gone for years. Ruth had never met him, but Naomi had never remarried. She poured herself into her sons, Mahlon and Chilion and their wives. And now they were gone. Dead.

When Ruth married Mahlon, they were the talk of the town. Same as when her brother-in-law married Orpah.

God had forbidden intermarriage between Israel and pagan nations. These men’s disobedience caught the attention of everyone in Moab. They entered the village as outsiders, fleeing from their home due to the famine. At least in Moab, perhaps they could find food, make a living, start a family?

Mahlon loved Ruth, he was good to her. His family was good to her. And now, he was gone. Ruth was left, childless, and a widow. For as far as she could rationalize, she had nothing to give. Nothing to offer anyone. The only thing she had was the love from her mother-in-law. A woman who treated Ruth as her own kin and loved her fiercely.

When Naomi gathered Ruth and Orpah, she shared the news she was leaving Moab and the two began to weep.

“No!” They said. “We will go with you to your people,” they offered. They have already lost so much. We can’t lose each other now too.

But Naomi persisted. “Return home, my daughters. Why would you come with me? Am I going to have any more sons, who could become your husbands? Return home, my daughters; I am too old to have another husband.”

This does not make sense. Ruth rationalized. Naomi is my home, being together, this is the only home I have left. Naomi was still talking, still persuading the two.

“No, my daughters, it is more bitter for me than for you, because the Lord’s hand has turned against me.”

The weeping continued and it grew louder as the two realized Naomi was serious. She was leaving Moab, and would head home to her people in Bethlehem.

Ruth watched Orpah kiss Naomi and leave. Ruth couldn’t do it. She couldn’t get up, she couldn’t look her in the eye and say goodbye.

Ruth knew she didn’t have anything to offer. No money, no support from her own mother and father. She had nothing, except herself. Would that be enough?

“Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go, I will go and where you stay, I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely if anything but death separates you and me.”

Ruth put herself out there. Offering all that she had to Naomi. And that would have to be enough.

Naomi realized Ruth had made up her mind. There was no use trying to convince her otherwise.

When they arrive in Bethlehem, the whole town was awake and news of these two arriving spread through town. Naomi was back, and she brought a Moabite with her.

While Ruth understood the risks of going to Bethlehem, she didn’t know quite the extent her presence would have in the town.

Israel and Moab were bitter enemies. Ruth was willingly walking into town as a foreigner. More than that, Ruth’s promise to Naomi bound herself to her.

Watching Naomi through the years had taught Ruth much about faith in Yahweh. Naomi lived it out everyday. Now it was Ruth’s turn. More than leaving her home country and being a foreigner in Israel, Ruth had also accepted the possibility of being a lifelong widow, rather than break her commitment to Naomi and Naomi’s God.

This newfound faith gave her the strength she would need in the days to come. She knew she did not have much to offer Naomi, but she soon realized she didn’t even have anything to offer God.

Would God turn His back on her? Would He count the offerings and dismiss Ruth when hers turned up short?

All I have to give is myself, she thought. Is that enough?

No one can understand the ways of God, although He gives us glimpses to see how He has weaved things together, we often wait, offering ourselves and hoping we are enough.

Ruth gave everything she had to her mother-in-law when all she had was herself, her friendship, her love. All that Ruth had was enough.

Through her faith in God, Ruth began to see she was enough for God as well.

Not because of all she did.

Not because she stayed with Naomi when she could have left.

Not because of her work harvesting barley which she would begin to do.

Ruth was enough because her God is enough.

When she found faith in God, Ruth stepped into the identity God gave her.

And Ruth finally saw what was there all along. She was who she was because of who our God is.