RUTHIE

Some time back, my wife, Hazel bought some statuary and one was a piece about 30” tall. The statue was a young girl, bare foot, shy, virtuous, and had some wheat in her arm from gleaning in the field. Hazel named her statue, Ruth after the Bible story.

One day my young grandson who was about 3 years old saw it standing on the floor, and he stared at it for awhile. Then suddenly he swung his arm and knocked it, head over heels breaking it into several pieces. I must say grandma wasn’t too thrilled about that.

I picked up the pieces and eventually repaired it and it looked pretty good. A few days later the dogs went running through the house and did the same thing. Ruth just went to pieces. Once again I worked on it until I got it restored the best I could and now Ruthie is on display in a safer place.

The book of Ruth is a book of contrasts, of real bad times, a time of famine without any stimulus plan in the offing.

Elimelech and Naomi and their two sons decided it was time to “Get out of Dodge” and they went to Moab hoping for a better life. While in Moab the Elimelech died shortly after arriving there. Mahlon and Chilion liked the look of the Moabite women and married two of them, Orpha and Ruth. Then things got worse, the two sons died.

Talk about bad luck, Naomi was a stranger in the land of Moab what we might call an alien with little means of support. She heard that the famine was over and decided to return home, to where she had kinfolk.

When she was leaving she told her daughters in laws something interesting, go back home for I have nothing for you. I’m too old to have a new husband and children and even if I did, would you wait until they were grown and marry them? Now that wasn’t much of a prospect so Orpah decided to go home while Ruth wouldn’t leave Naomi.

This is the background for the story of how Ruth, a gentile became an ancestress of Jesus Christ.

Naomi and Ruth returned home and started over and with much smarts and effort things worked out better than they could have hoped for.

Naomi did two things; one she put her trust in GOD and two she put forth the effort required to change her situation.

In these times of economic turn down, I suspect that no one has it worse than she did. Admittedly it is not easy to look for the silver lining in these dark times.

When they asked Naomi how are things she answered; “Just call me bitter,” which was her appraisal of her condition.

For those who have joined the bitter club, perhaps they should take a second look at Naomi. Even in good times we need to declare; I need thee every hour, but much more so when times are bad.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIRJNgNSqok&feature=related